Death Penalty
by ChargaaKilla
Summary: This story follows the Left 4 Dead characters: Francis, Zoey, Bill and Louis from the intro movie through Blood Harvest. This is a prequel to my "Dead Last" story. I will also have a little bit more intro for my "Doc" character. This is my second fiction effort, so feedback is always most appreciated. I hope you enjoy it. I am writing the chapters as I go, please be patient.
1. Rude Awakening

AUTHOR' NOTE: This chapter covers the intro movie and attempts to start fleshing out the characters. Further chapters will not adhere so closely to the game map/script. I love the intro movie and didn't want to make any massive changes to it, so I didn't.

Bill poked his head cautiously out the door of the police station, checking out the street for infected. He held the door open and waved the others out. "Keep together and keep quiet, let's not call attention to ourselves." He whispered to them as they filed out.

The young manager, Louis, looked nervously around and nodded. He was sweating and clutching to a submachine gun tightly.

The young woman, Zoey, anxiously peered around Louis, glancing at Bill as she passed. She held a pair of pistols as she crept forward, a rifle slung over her shoulder. She followed closely behind Louis, almost stepping on him.

The hulking shape of Francis, a heavily tattooed biker, emerged last. His face seemed set in a permanently annoyed glare, his massive shoulders hunched as he crouched over his raised shotgun. He looked around suspiciously, he didn't know what to expect. His eyebrows arched in surprise as he took in the bedlam surrounding him. The city had been a chaotic mess when he had been arrested a few days ago, but this was far beyond chaos, it was near total destruction. Every imaginable vehicle was either crashed, haphazardly abandoned or burnt to a shell. Buildings, houses and stores had been broken into, their contents spilled out into the yards and streets. The dead were scattered everywhere, while infected creatures could be seen stumbling through the rubble here and there. No wonder they were evacuating the city, he thought to himself.

"Come on!" Bill spoke quietly to them as he jerked his head toward a nearby alley. They needed to head toward the downtown area, there should be a central evacuation spot there. If they were really lucky there might be a National Guard or Army unit stationed there too.

Bill led the group down the deserted alley. He proceeded cautiously, scanning ahead for trouble. He pulled up short as he spotted a pool of viscous, green goo on the ground, automatically throwing up the "hold up" signal he had used so often in 'Nam.

"Hold up!" He said firmly, quickly realizing the others might not recognize the signal. He knelt down and examined the goo, dipping his fingers in and rubbing them together. "Never seen this before…"

Francis glanced down and gave a snort of disgust. "Don't let that stop ya from smearin' it all over yourself!"

Bill scowled up at him and stood, then wiped the goo across Francis' vest. It was past time to put this kid in his damned place.

Francis leapt back, brushing at the goo. "Goddamn it, Bill! Aaaghh, it stinks!" He glared angrily at Bill, as Louis unsuccessfully tried to stifle a surprised giggle. Francis drew himself up to his full height, towering over Bill. He didn't know what the old man thought he was playing at, but Francis wasn't about to let him get away with that shit. It was his favorite and only vest, after all. Nobody screws with a man's leather vest.

Suddenly, loud sobbing interrupted the men's tense stand off. It seemed to be coming from a nearby room.

"Somebody's alive!" Zoey looked with astonishment at the others as she approached the door.

Bill reached forward and carefully opened the door, as Zoey called into the darkness. He cautiously entered, setting his feet quietly down, heel to toe as he crept forward. Zoey followed him, her flashlight scanning the room as she continued to call out to the sobbing person.

A flash of lightning illuminated the room and they suddenly saw where the sobbing was coming from. An emaciated woman, dressed in torn rags, was kneeling on the ground, sobbing and hissing. This was no person, but a strange undead creature.

"Lights off!" Bill hissed at Zoey. She immediately switched it off, horrified at their discovery.

Outside, a drizzling rain had begun. Francis hissed out a curse, now his favorite vest was going to get wet, too. He hoped it would at least rinse the crud that Bill had smeared on it off. He cursed in irritation, that old man was going to get an ass kicking before this was all over if he wasn't careful. The old fossil had already gotten one warning from Francis, he wouldn't get another.

A series of howls started up down the alley, as some infected appeared to detect their presence and started running toward them.

Francis began blasting them down with his shotgun, pumping the shells quickly into the creatures scrambling toward them.

Louis started to panic, he dashed into the room to warn Bill and Zoey. "They're coming!" He yelled, as his flashlight shined on and startled the weird female zombie. She rose, shrieking as her red eyes searched for the one who dared disturb her, long and sharp claws spreading out.

"Run like hell!" Zoey screamed as she bolted for the exit behind Louis. Bill scrambled after her, slamming the door behind him. The zombie slammed into it, shrieking in fury.

Louis threw himself against the door, his eyes widened in surprise as the zombie clawed its way through the metal door. He began to spray bullets from the machine gun at it through the hole it had made. "How do you like that!" He screamed at her, suddenly very pissed at the shrieking creature that was doing her damnedest to try and get to him.

"Stick together!" Francis bellowed back to Louis, as he fired his shotgun as quickly as he could toward the horde dashing down the alley towards them. They could use the submachine gun over here, screw that thing behind the door. He turned back as he shoved shells into his weapon. A choked gasp from Bill caused him to glance behind him. Bill was dangling in the air, kicking futilely, suspended by some sort of wriggling tentacle leading to a tall mutant zombie standing on a fire escape.

"Hang on!" He yelled to Bill as he shot the mutant creature. It burst in a puff of putrid, choking, green smoke as Bill dropped heavily down onto the pavement. Francis urged him to his feet, even as he blew away a zombie charging up to throw itself on Bill, barely glancing at it as he blew its head off. "Merry Christmas!" He threw Bill a little smirk. Here he wanted to kill the guy a few minutes ago, now he was saving his ass multiple times. Too ironic, Francis thought to himself. Didn't mean he was off the hook for the vest thing, though. He whirled back toward the horde surging down the alley toward them. Their combined fire finally eliminated the infected, leaving a pile of corpses spread through the alley.

They all looked at one another, panting, as they realized just how much trouble they were in. This wasn't going to be some leisurely stroll to the evacuation area.

Their stunned silence was broken by the thudding sound of a helicopter passing overhead.

Louis looked skyward and began to race toward it, yelling as he ran. "We're here! We're not infected! We're down here!" He raced into the street as the chopper disappeared. "Damn it!" His shoulders slumped as he realized it hadn't seen him. A screeching shriek caught his attention and he looked up toward the building as a dark shape hurtled down toward him, throwing him down on his back as it ripped at his chest with sharp claws. He screamed in pain as he tried to shove it off him.

Pistol shots peppered into the creature, as Zoey fired both pistols at it, and it staggered back from him. He pulled his pistol out and shot it in the head. It fell dead, splatting against a car and setting off the loud blaring of a car alarm.

"Aw…this is gonna get bad…" Bill observed, as he listened to the howling and screaming erupting all around them as the zombies, attracted to the alarm, scrambled toward them. They clustered nervously together, as masses of infected started dashing down the street to converge on them.

A loud roaring erupted over the screaming of the writhing crowd descending on them. A massive creature appeared, towering over the others, it was a steroid-ridden nightmare. Huge, pinkish and covered in bulging muscle it stampeded its way through the horde, dashing anything in its way aside.

Francis stared at it in disbelief, the gigantic thing looked unstoppable. It bashed a fist into a car, sending it rolling through the horde, crushing them in its path. The car bounded past, and the others turned to gaze in disbelief at their newest problem.

"Run or shoot? Run or shoot?" Louis asked, as he backed away in barely concealed panic.

"BOTH!" Bill shouted, as he bolted down an alley, firing backward toward the pursuing zombies and gigantic beast. The alley came to a dead end, they looked around in desperation for a way out.

"Up the escape!" Zoey screamed, pointing to a fire escape leading to a rooftop. They ran toward it.

Francis knelt down at the base, aiming his weapon on the alley behind them. He narrowed his eyes, growling. "Come on, come on!" He wanted his shot at that big son of a bitch. The idea of running away from the thing didn't sit well with him.

It charged around the corner and he blasted it with the shotgun, the pellets slamming into it. It barely even flinched as it grasped a nearby zombie and flung it full force into Francis, bouncing him off the wall. He fell stunned to the ground as the creature raised its fists, preparing to pound him into the rubble.

Bill fired a burst from his M16 into its face, distracting the creature towards him and away from Francis. It flung an arm toward him, he ducked it as the zombie punched through the wall behind him. The others had all started up the fire escape. He glanced up, wondering if he would have the same chance.

"Go! Go! I'll hold them off!" Zoey shouted as he charged up the escape. The young woman fired her pistols into the face of the monstrous zombie and the common infected flooding in behind him. The giant leapt after them, tearing the metal escape apart from its sheer weight. Bill was helped onto the rooftop by Louis, just as it started to tear away from the wall.

Zoey was trying to jump off, but the escape sagged backward, throwing her back, away from the roof. She dropped her pistols and lunged for the edge of the roof, as the escape collapsed beneath her. She saw Francis leaning on the edge as he reached for her. She realized she wasn't going to make it. "Francis!" She cried out in desperation as she missed the edge and started to fall. Suddenly, his giant hand darted down and closed over her arm in a death grip.

Francis gasped in pain as he took her full weight on his badly bruised shoulder. He knelt down and pulled upward, reaching with his other arm to grab her belt and haul her over the edge, with Louis helping him. They got her safely on the rooftop. Francis fell over against a nearby wall to sit, gasping, he needed a couple of minutes to work his way through the throbbing pain he was feeling in his shoulder and aching head. Being bounced off a brick wall by that leviathan had been a very painful wake up call.

Louis sat shakily down on some stairs. "We made it! I can't believe we made it!" He wiped at the sweat running down his face.

"Son, we just crossed the street. Let's not throw a party until we're out of the city." Bill observed with a grim shake of his head. This situation was so much worse than he ever thought it would be. He looked over at his little crew, collapsed in exhaustion behind him. If that wasn't a trial by fire, he didn't know what the hell was. They had done well, far better than he could have hoped for. They were a ragtag little crew, but he was proud of them. They stuck together and helped each other, even in the face of overwhelming odds. He sat down for a quick breather before leading them further into the depths of the hell surrounding them.


	2. The Pits

They all rested for a bit. Once they recovered, they explored the rooftop. They were relieved to find some ammo and a few weapons. Francis was happy to find an axe and Zoey was able to get two more pistols to replace the ones lost in the alley. They refilled clips and stocked up on ammo, they found a couple small rucksacks to carry ammo and the medical supplies and kits they also found.

The thudding sound of a helicopter again reverberated around them. They darted out from under the tarp to wave it down, but it continued without stopping as it blared a message on a loudspeaker: "Proceed to Mercy Hospital for evacuation. If you can hear this, proceed to Mercy Hospital for evacuation."

"All right, then. It looks like we need to get to the hospital." Bill stared after the chopper as he finished filling another clip for the M16.

"Let's do it! I've got a good feeling about this, guys!" Louis gave them all a wide, enthusiastic grin.

Francis rolled his eyes, he didn't know how much of this crap he could stand. "Oh for fuck's sake…" he muttered to himself.

Zoey cast a frown his way. She wasn't sure how long she could put up with Francis and his shitty attitude. Things were tough enough without having to contend with Major Bring Down over there.

Bill led Zoey and Louis down the stairs and into an apartment. Francis decided to take the direct route and jumped down through the skylight, shattering the glass. He grinned, he'd always wanted to do shit like this and now he could. Shooting zombies, busting up crap, this could turn out to be a great day after all. If they found a cold keg of beer, he might consider it the best day of his life. He used the axe to chop up a couple of infecting lurking in the apartment, as the others killed a few more with pistol shots.

They worked their way down through the apartment and into an alley. Francis was kept busy, chopping down the staggering infected as they came upon them. They could hear a weird groaning and belching echoing through the alley, they cautiously turned the corner and encountered a grossly bloated infected, covered in boils. It spewed a horrible smelling bile all over Francis, who had been leading.

"Eewww, Yuck! That's disgusting!" Francis whipped the axe into it and it exploded with a muffled boom, releasing even more bile and staggering him back against the others. Zombies began to rush into the alley, swarming over Francis as he swung his axe wildly. The bile obviously was some sort of attractant, as they seemed to ignore Bill, Zoey and Louis. They fired down the alley, killing the zombies before they could get to Francis. Eventually the flood of infected pouring into the alley dwindled down to a trickle and eventually stopped. Francis leaned against the wall, wiping the sweat from his face. He looked down at his hand to find it was covered in blood. Shit, they had scratched him. Did this mean he would turn into one of them? He really wasn't sure what the rules were for this vampire/zombie shit.

Bill approached him and took a look at the damage. Francis had several large scratches and what looked like a bite on his shoulder. He wasn't sure what the hell they should do now. Francis and Louis had both received scratches today and would probably turn into infected soon. He shook his head sadly, it looked like it was going to be just him and Zoey shortly.

"What?!" Francis demanded when he saw Bill looking him over with a frown.

"Nothing. Let's get moving." Bill sighed as he led them further down the alley. He spotted a sign with a fluorescent arrow, indicating the presence of some kind of shelter down the road. The streets were empty for the most part, it seemed as if most of the infected had run into the alley, attracted by the bile. The sign led them down some subway stairs, where they found a room protected by a red, heavily barred, reinforced door.

Inside the room they found ammo, meds, a small amount of canned food and a microwave. There was a separate bathroom area, and the water and electricity appeared to both be working. They entered and barricaded the door, heaving a sigh of relief. It was late and they needed to eat and rest.

Louis and Zoey got to work on getting a meal together, while Francis went in the bathroom and worked on washing the putrid stench of the bile off himself and his clothes. He grabbed a towel from a stack in the bathroom and wrapped it around his hips as he hung his clothes up to dry. He inspected his injuries, cleaning and disinfecting them and taping them up. His shoulder was turning black and blue and stiffening up on him. He sighed and went out to eat with the others. They turned toward him and looked away again, uncomfortable with seeing him half-naked. His heavily muscled body was covered in tattoos, interspersed with numerous scars. He shrugged and ignored them, they would just have to get over it. He helped himself to the food and drink, finally starting to feel a little better. He finished up and was thinking about getting ready to bed down for the night.

He heard the click of the M16 bolt behind him and glanced back. Bill was standing there, his weapon trained on him and a grim look on his face.

"Get up, Francis. Grab some bedding and take it into the bathroom. You and Louis will be in there for the night. Don't make this any harder than it has to be." Bill gestured at him with the rifle, motioning to Louis to get to his feet, too.

Francis scowled and got slowly to his feet, turning toward Bill. "You ain't gonna shoot me, old man. And I ain't stayin' the night in the bathroom with Louie, either. We're not infected. I feel fine. If you're afraid of us, you can barricade yourself in the bathroom. That place wouldn't hold me for two seconds if I turned, anyway." To make the point, he flexed his chest and biceps, enormous muscles bulging and twitching.

Bill frowned at him. "Good point. I guess you go outside and take your chances out there." He gestured toward the door with the assault rifle.

Francis folded his arms across his chest, narrowed his eyes and set his jaw firmly. "Make me. Go ahead, old man, try to force me outside. You're gonna have to shoot me first. You better make it count, though."

Louis looked nervously back and forth between Bill and Francis. He didn't want to spend the night in the bathroom, certainly not outside, but he sure wasn't willing to be shot over it. He had been bit quite some time ago, before he even met the others, and he still didn't feel sick. He didn't think this was the right time to bring that up, though.

Zoey jumped up in alarm. "No, Bill! You can't! Don't hurt him! If it weren't for Francis, I'd be dead! Please don't shoot him!" She darted in front of Francis, trying to shield him from Bill.

Francis looked down at the young woman, practically in shock. He couldn't believe she was siding with him, trying to protect _him_. "Don't worry, Zoey. That old fart ain't gonna shoot me. Not if he knows what's good for him." He assured her, as he glared back at Bill. Francis gently reached over, taking hold of Zoey's shoulders, and moved her aside. He refused to hide behind her and didn't want her to get hurt if Bill did decide to shoot.

Bill sighed in disgust and looked back at Zoey. "Fine, then you and I will have to stay up half the night keeping watch and making sure they don't turn. And if they do, we'll have to shoot them then. Are you prepared to do that?"

Zoey blinked away tears as the gravity of their situation became clear to her. "Yes, Bill. I would rather do that then put them out there to die. I just can't do that."

Francis gave a snort and turned his back on Bill. He grabbed some bedding and threw it in a corner, then threw himself down on it. He scowled at Bill before turning toward the wall and throwing a blanket over himself. Soft snoring soon erupted from the corner.

Bill sat down at the table and frowned toward Francis. He settled in to watch over the others for the next four hours.

Zoey touched his arm. "Thanks, Bill. I'm sorry, I just couldn't do that to them." She took some bedding and lay down against the wall, not far away from him.

"It's ok, kid. I understand. I didn't want to do it, either. But sometimes you have to do things you don't really want to, just to survive. Don't forget that." Bill started cleaning the M16, while keeping a close eye on Francis and Louis.

Louis grabbed some bedding and quietly lay down in another corner. It had been quite some time since he had first been bit and so far, nothing had happened. He wondered if he was immune or something. If he was immune, maybe Francis was, too. After all, he'd been in that jail with a whole lot of infected and he was the only person to make it out without contracting the flu. He drifted off to sleep, worrying about whether he would be able to tell if he was turning or not.

Zoey woke them early the next morning. They ate a quick meal and readied their gear before heading out.

Bill looked closely at both Francis and Louis and offered to clean up and dress their wounds. As far as he could tell, they remained uninfected. Louis allowed him to redress his wounds, but Francis refused, glowering darkly at Bill. He might not be infected yet, but he clearly had thoughts about turning against Bill.

They left the saferoom, jumping down through a hole and descending the subway stairs. Infected lurked throughout the subway system, they chopped and shot their way over to the tracks. Subway cars lay strewn along the tracks, fires were still burning everywhere. They carefully picked their way through the rubble.

"Whoa! Check it out! Homemade explosives and fire! All right!" Francis grabbed up a pipe bomb and Molotov from the ground. He stuffed the pipe bomb in his pocket and offered the Molotov to Zoey. She grinned and accepted it with a shy smile. He gave her a crooked grin and then went back to leading them down the tracks.

Without really discussing it, they'd fallen into a formation with Francis leading on point, Zoey and Bill behind him covering the flanks, while Louis brought up the rear and kept an eye behind them. This seemed to work well, since Francis was happy to kill the majority of the infected they encountered as they moved forward.

They made their way along the tracks and occasionally through subway cars. They came to an exit and took stairs, which led to a generator room. They discovered some ammo and med supplies, as well as more molotovs and pipe bombs. There was a minigun set up near some lockers, and piles of corpses everywhere. Clearly the spot had seen some intense action with a large number of zombies. There was a door, which could only be operated by a switch, Francis and Bill stood next to it, contemplating the issue of opening it.

"That's gonna make a hell of a racket. Might as well ring a dinner bell, everything within a mile is gonna come runnin'." Francis observed with a frown, kicking aside some body parts near the door.

"You've got quite the knack for stating the damned obvious, I'll say that for you." Bill scowled at him. Francis merely flicked him an annoyed glance. "Doesn't look like we have much choice, though. We need to prepare, then we'll hit the switch."

They decided to hold out in the room with the minigun. They set up gas cans at the obvious approaches on the left and right and collected all the molotovs and pipe bombs in the room, ready to be used. Francis took charge of the minigun, while Zoey and Louis jumped on top of the lockers on the right and left of the room to set up a crossfire. Bill would stay in the far corner and pick off any zombies that made it through.

Bill flipped the switch and the door mechanism ground into gear. They soon began to hear the howling and screaming of an approaching horde. Soon all they could hear was the rapid fire of the minigun, accompanied by curses from Francis as he did his best to shoot down the throngs of zombies rushing toward them.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan. They set fire to the gasoline, effectively blocking the easy approaches to their position. Francis was doing great with the minigun, and the others were easily picking off the few infected that managed to make it past him.

Francis suddenly shouted in surprise, as he was dragged away from the minigun. "No, no, noooo…!" He cried out in pain as he was dragged straight through the fire and out of sight.

"Francis!" Zoey screamed and jumped down off the lockers. She couldn't see him anywhere out there, but she could hear him crying out. She grabbed a pipe bomb, armed it and threw it out. She and Bill dashed out from the room, around the flames and spotted the smoker choking Francis. They quickly killed the smoker and freed Francis from the tongue wrapped around him. Bill threw out another pipe bomb as they dragged him to his feet and helped him back to the room. He collapsed in a corner on his hands and knees, gasping in pain. Aside from being nearly choked to death, he now had some serious burns on his arms and neck. Bill, Louis and Zoey continued to fire on the horde until it eventually died out.

Bill was just thinking that they had done pretty well, aside from the smoker, when they heard the unmistakable roar from one of those giant, pink zombies that they now referred to as tanks. He directed the others to go through the door and up the stairs, while he waited for the tank in the generator room. It thundered up the stairs from the subway and he lit the thing on fire with a Molotov and ran for the stairs as it charged after him, covered in flames. They all directed their fire on it as it climbed up the stairs and it finally fell dead as it neared the top.

They gathered together in a nearby room to take a breather and treat Francis' wounds. Francis waved them away, he didn't want them to see how badly hurt he was. If he became too much of a burden, or too badly injured, he expected Bill and the others would just leave him behind, discard him like garbage. He was accustomed to being used and thrown aside, he doubted these people would behave any differently.

Bill was exasperated, the stubborn biker refused to let them examine his injuries or help. He wondered if they would have to force him, or just wait until he passed out. It looked like the latter was a distinct possibility.

Zoey frowned at Francis. She couldn't see why he was being so stubborn, they were only trying to help him. "Francis, for god's sake, let me look at it! You're hurt! Let us help you!"

He shook his head as he sat up against the wall in a corner. He looked through his med kit and found some ointment to smear on the burns and some pain meds. He dry swallowed the pills and put on the ointment, then leaned his head back with his eyes closed as he tried to stop the room from spinning.

He startled up as he felt fingers touching his arm, he must have dozed off for a second. He instinctively grabbed the hand touching him in a vise-like grip.

"Ow! You're hurting me! Let go!" Zoey cried out in surprise and pain, as she tried to jerk her hand back.

He looked over to her wearily and quickly released her. "Sorry, ya startled me. I did ask to be left alone, ya know. Wasn't expectin' it, that's all…" He laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes again.

Bill laid his hand on Zoey's shoulder and motioned her away, putting his fingers to his lips. If they just waited a couple more minutes, he suspected that Francis would be under deep enough that they could have a look at the damage.

After a few minutes, Bill approached quietly to have a look at the wounds. Francis had some bad burns, very painful, but if they kept them clean they should heal up all right. He sighed and got the med kit out to bandage him up. Francis didn't stir when he carefully laid his hand on him, so he went ahead and covered the burns, taping the bandages on.

They rested in the room a little while longer, then Bill shook Francis awake. Francis grumbled and cursed when he discovered the bandages, shotting fierce looks at Bill, who ignored him. They left the room and worked their way down an alley and a street, eventually coming to another safe-room. Inside they found more ammo, some med supplies and a small amount of food. They quickly grabbed something to eat before heading back out.

Bill took the lead this time, with Francis and Zoey on the flanks and Louis at the rear. They took out several infected as they worked their way through the alleys and into a diner. They left the diner and advanced through a lot, as they walked around a tractor trailer, a boomer vomited bile all over them. They were instantly swarmed by infected, Francis chopped away with his axe while the others fired pistols and machine guns into the mass of zombies grasping and tearing at them.

They fought their way over to a lift, which raised them up to a nearby roof. As they fired down on the zombies, the gas pumps nearby exploded, sending a shower of debris over them and igniting a huge blaze. They jumped off the lift and ran along the rooftop and into a warehouse, where they dropped through a hole in the floor into a room below. The infected tried to pour into the room after them, but they held them off, directing their fire at the windows and ceiling opening until the last of them were killed. They grabbed more ammo and some med supplies from the room before quickly moving into a downstairs warehouse area. They followed a passageway, which led to stairs, taking them down into access rooms for the sewers underneath the city.

Francis hopped down first, grimacing at the stench as he descended into the muck with the others following right behind.

"Francis, is that you, or the sewer?" Bill said as he followed the biker through the tunnel.

"Hey, hey! That is uncalled for!" Francis barked back at him. "You don't exactly smell like a basket of roses either! That bile shit stinks worse than the damned sewage!" He crept forward, shoulders bunched tensely as he worked his way down the dark tunnel.

A dark shape silently broke away from an access shaft ahead of them. A shriek reverberated through the tunnel as the shape launched itself at them, pouncing toward Francis.

He bashed at the shape with the butt of his gun, and the hunter stumbled back from its prey. Francis leveled his shotgun at it, the zombie was blown backward from the blast, falling in a heap. He couldn't help but smile, that was just so cool looking. He grinned back at his companions, as Bill rolled his eyes.

They continued on through the tunnels to an access ladder indicating that Mercy Hospital was just above them. Francis went up the ladder first, clutching a pipe bomb in one hand. As soon as he got out, he tossed the pipe bomb and dozens of zombies rushed off to pursue the beeping explosive, shattering into blobs of flesh once it detonated. Bill, Louis and Zoey followed him up and they rushed forward past an abandoned ambulance into the hospital. Just inside the door they discovered another safe-room. They quickly entered and barricaded it shut.

They looked at each other in relief, they had made it to Mercy.


	3. Acts of Mercy

They looked around, finding themselves in a long narrow room. There was a pile of ammo and some med supplies, but that was about it. They searched through their packs, coming up with a can of soup and some granola bars. They opened up the can and added water to stretch it out to make enough for all of them. Luckily, the power was still on, probably due to the hospital's emergency generators, so they were able to heat it up in the microwave. They each got a cup of watery soup and a granola bar. Francis wolfed his down in seconds, then searched through the cabinets, hoping to find more food. Aside from a jar of coffee creamer, there was nothing else. He slammed a cabinet door shut in frustration. The others stayed clear of him, he was obviously in a particularly foul mood.

Francis threw himself down in a chair, pulled off the bandages and spread more ointment on his burns, retaping the bandages back on, then swallowed some more pain pills. He wished there was some way to wash up and wash the bile out of his clothes. He coughed, as the overwhelming stench coated his throat and invaded his sinuses, which earned him a sharp look from Bill.

"How you feeling, there, Francis?" Bill looked at him closely. He couldn't help wondering when Louis and Francis were going to turn. The coughing might be the start of the end for Francis.

"Just fine, old man. Don't worry your beard over me." Francis cast an unfriendly glance his way. He walked over and peered out the door into the dark recesses of the hospital hallway. The place was wrecked, a total shithole. He hated hospitals.

He glanced back over his shoulder at the others. "Ready for this?" He chambered a shell and prepared to lift the bar on the door. Bill, Zoey and Louis clustered behind him, following as he left the safe-room.

They entered the hallway and Francis immediately shot two johnny-clad zombies. They worked their way toward the elevators, which were inoperable, to Bill and Francis' disgust.

"I hate stairs!" Francis trudged away in search of the stairwell, angrily kicking some body parts out of his way.

"Damn straight!" Bill agreed with a sigh as he followed behind. His knee was already in bad shape, this was more exercise in a day than he usually did in a damned year. He didn't know how many stairs it would be able to take before giving out on him.

They found the stairs and went up to the next floor, finding that access to further floors was blocked by mounds of desks and other furniture. Obviously previous survivors had attempted to block infected from going up the stairs. They would have to work their way through the next floor to see if they could find another stairwell to upper floors, or a working elevator.

They found the main entrance on this level, as they entered it a boomer standing on an upper walkway sprayed them all liberally with bile.

"Shit, he puked on me!" Francis yelled in disgust as he tried to fling the smelly mess off and wipe it from his eyes. He could barely see with that crap covering him.

Screams and howls erupted all around them as zombies swarmed toward them from every direction. Francis hacked away with the axe as Zoey fired both pistols into the masses. Louis and Bill fired their weapons as rapidly as they could, sometimes they were forced to push the zombies back using their rifles. Eventually they killed the last of them. They huddled together, panting with exhaustion, as they looked at the pile of corpses surrounding them.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I gotta wash this shit off me." Francis made his way toward the nearby restrooms, hoping the water was still working. The others shrugged and followed along, it wasn't a bad idea. The stench was overwhelming and distracting, it wouldn't hurt to wash up a little.

Francis, Bill and Louis entered the men's room, which was empty, aside from a few decaying corpses. Francis cranked on the faucets and was pleased to see a steady stream of water shoot out. He washed his face and head, then stripped off his vest and shirt . He soaked the shirt and scrubbed it with some hand soap, then used it to wash his arms, back and chest off, rinsing it in more water. Bill and Louis followed suit, washing themselves off as best they could.

Zoey timidly entered the women's restroom. She was a little nervous about being separated from her companions, but there was no way she was joining them in the men's room. The light was flickering on and off, making the room even spookier. She went over to the sink and began to wash her face when she heard a small sound. She whirled around and looked at the stalls. She took out her pistols and approached the first stall, kicking the door open. It was empty. She repeated the process with the second and third stalls with the same result. Maybe she had imagined it. She chuckled nervously, her imagination was getting the better of her. That's what she got for watching all those horror flicks. She approached the handicapped stall and got ready to clear it, giving it a small kick. To her surprise, the door was latched. Even more surprising, she thought she heard a whimper. She dropped down to the floor to look under the partition and saw what looked like a form crouched next to the toilet.

"Um…hello? Don't be afraid, I'm not here to hurt you. Come on out, it's safe for now." She saw the form shift and heard some shuffling and whispering. "We can help you get to the evac spot, that's where we're headed. Please, we can help you. Don't be afraid, it's ok."

The latch lifted and the door very slowly opened to reveal an older woman and a young boy. Two people! Zoey was stunned and stood there for a second in silence. The woman looked at her, nervously trembling, as the young boy held her hand and stared in numb shock at Zoey.

Zoey pulled herself together and smiled at them. "Hey, it's ok. It's safe, don't worry. My name is Zoey, what's yours?"

The little boy spoke first. "My name is Zeph, this is Grandma." The elderly woman smiled tentatively at her. "My name is Betty, we're so happy to see a real person. We've been hiding in here for more than a day. Are there others with you?"

Zoey nodded her head. "Yes, there are three men. All good guys, and good fighters. Without them, I never would have made it this far. You'll be a welcome surprise, we never expected to find any other survivors here. Hang on a sec, I'll see if they're out there now."

Zoey stuck her head out of the restroom to see that all three men were outside waiting for her.

"Come on, Zoey! Get the damned lead out, I want to get to the evac site before it's time to collect my goddamned social security and before Bill forgets why the hell we came here!" Francis turned toward her impatiently.

Zoey just grinned at them. "I've got a surprise for you boys!" She ducked back in, then opened the door and came out, followed by the woman and boy.

"Holy shit! Uh..shit…I mean, uh…sorry, Ma'am." Francis stuttered as he tried to apologize for cursing. He decided it would be best to just shut the hell up.

The woman smiled nervously, taking in the giant biker and his companions. The boy gaped at Francis, staring up at the towering, muscular, tattooed man.

"Are you a super hero? You kinda look like Wolverine with no hair." The boy asked as he continued to stare at Francis.

"What? Um, no." Francis shifted nervously, he wasn't used to being around kids. The bitch of it was now he would have to watch his damned language.

Zoey giggled and turned to the boy, speaking in a conspiratorial tone. "He's a secret super hero, he's not supposed to tell anyone. You can call him Fantastic Francis, or Captain Fantastic if you want to include his rank." She grinned mischievously at Francis as she patted the little boy on his back.

Francis rolled his eyes, this was just what he needed. Some kid mooning over him and tagging along behind him, thinking he was some sort of cartoon character super hero. "She's just kiddin'. I'm not a super hero, really."

The boy studied him with a frown. "Are you from the circus, then? They had a painted man at the circus I went to this summer."

The others all laughed, as Francis began to turn red. Zoey stifled her giggling long enough to ask him. "OK, Francis, what's it going to be? Circus freak or super hero? Give it some thought, take your time…"

"Very fu…I mean… freakin' funny. Ha, ha. You guys are a real riot. Don't you think we should save the introductions 'til later? This isn't exactly the safest place to be right now." Francis glanced around with a frown.

Bill nodded as he gave a quick look around as well. "Yeah, "Captain" Fantastic here has a point. We need to keep moving and we also need to keep quiet until we make the next safe-room. Pleased to meet you folks. Why don't you stay with us in the center, Francis will be in front on point and Louis will take up the rear. Let's go, everyone."

They climbed several more sets of stairs without incident. It was clear of zombies, they must have all been attracted to the bile and been killed in the earlier horde attack. They found themselves on the surgery/ICU floor and eventually located a working elevator.

After exploring the area, they decided the best approach was to activate the elevator and then take up a defensive position in a nearby room, which had only one entrance to it. It also had a small closet where Betty and Zeph could hide, out of danger. They took up their positions, Louis and Francis called for the elevator and raced back to the room just as the howling and screaming began.

The horde rushed down the hall toward them, but they were running directly into the combined fire of the team. None of them even made it through the door. Boomers, hunters and smokers also appeared, but were picked off without inflicting damage. After less than five minutes, the horde and all the special infected had been eradicated. The survivors raced to the waiting elevator and started it up for the top floor, where they hoped to find a radio and helipad for a helicopter evacuation.

They cautiously exited the elevator, finding themselves on a floor which was under construction. Building materials were piled everywhere, attended by a number of zombie construction workers. Francis quickly and quietly dispatched them with his axe as he led them toward a safe-room, following the fluorescent signs through the maze of the half-finished floor. They finally spotted the red reinforced door and quickly entered and secured it behind them. They all heaved a sigh of relief, they were very close to their goal.

It was already dusk, so they decided it would be better to wait until morning before trying to find the radio and summon a rescue. Bill doubted that any pilot would agree to land at night, without being able to see whether the pad was clear of hordes of infected.

The safe-room had ammo, med kits, pipe bombs, Molotovs and a small amount of food and water. The food consisted of packages of Ramen noodles, envelopes of hot chocolate and a couple of candy bars and bags of chips, probably raided from a machine. Several sleeping bags were scattered on the floor, not enough for the six of them, though. It was decided that Betty and Zeph could share one of the bags, Zoey would have another and trade with Bill when they switched watch shifts and Louis got the long straw, winning the last sleeping bag.

Francis snorted in disgust. That was just his goddamned luck. Why did he always get the short end of the stick? Geez, if it weren't for bad luck, he wouldn't have any damn luck at all. He threw himself down on the floor to sit against the wall, as he dug through his pack for the ointment to put on his burns. He gingerly removed the bandages, wincing as they stuck to the wounds.

Betty interrupted him. "Can I help? I used to be a nurse, I'd be happy to help with those."

Francis shook his head, he would rather do it himself. He would still prefer that nobody see the extent of his injuries. "Uh…no thanks. I got it." He cursed under his breath as the bandage tore another scab off as he tried to remove it.

Betty sighed and pushed his hand away. "Here, let me. If you keep doing that you're going to make it worse." She dampened a paper towel with some bottled water and pressed it over the bandage, softening it enough to remove it without it sticking. She carefully removed the bandages and reapplied ointment, then taped fresh bandages on. "There you go, good as new." She smiled at Francis and patted him gently on the shoulder.

Francis gave a small smile back as he gulped some more pain pills. "Thanks, you didn't have to do that. I appreciate it, though."

She shook her head as she cleaned up the old bandages. "No, it's us who should be thanking you. We would still be stuck in that bathroom if it weren't for you and your friends. You really are a super hero to us." She gave him a smile as she got up and walked off to help with the meal.

They ate their noodles and split up the remaining hot chocolate packs and snacks. Francis gave his hot chocolate and candy bar to Zeph, so that he wouldn't have to share with his grandmother. The little boy gave the biker a huge smile and hugged him, causing the big man to blush as he left to bed down for the night.

Zoey stifled a grin as he left. The badass biker man was a big softy at heart, at least when it came to kids. You would never guess it from looking at him.

Francis went off to find a spot to sleep. He took off his vest and used it for a pillow, lying down on the bare floor along a wall. He was so tired he fell asleep almost immediately in spite of the uncomfortably hard floor and no blankets.

The others eventually followed suit, falling quickly to sleep, leaving Bill to clean his M16 as he watched over the others. He gazed down at the two newest members of the group. It was a good thing they were close to an evac spot, otherwise he wasn't sure if they would have been able to babysit those two. It was hard enough defending yourself in this mess, without having to look after two defenseless members of the group. He wondered if Betty had any experience with weapons, because they might need the added firepower tomorrow.

The next morning found them all eager to get moving, they all looked forward to finally being evacuated to a safe zone. With the possible exception of Francis, nobody would miss the battles with the undead.

They armed themselves and set up their clips, stuffing more ammo into their sacks. Bill asked Betty whether she could use a shotgun or rifle, but she shook her head. She told them she'd be more likely to shoot them than the infected. Bill just sighed, it was too bad, another gun would have been a big help.

They left the safe-room, keeping the same formation as the previous day. They went up a set of stairs and down a hallway with Francis chopping up a few infected here and there as they went. They crawled through a vent to a roof access ladder, they could already here sounds coming from a radio. Climbing up the ladders, they found themselves on the roof of the hospital, overlooking the helipad.

Bill gazed around them at the partially destroyed buildings and helipad. He had a bad feeling that there was a tank around. That was the only thing he could think of that could do this much damage.

They climbed down to the helipad and walked down a metal ramp to a lit building. There they found the radio, as well as more ammo and med supplies, as well as a few shotguns and rifles. On the roof of the building was a minigun.

Bill used the radio to make contact, the chopper pilot told them he was on his way and that they would need to hold out for a few minutes until he got there. Within minutes they began to hear the howling and screaming of the horde. They ran up to the roof of the building to hold out against them.

Francis manned the minigun, he couldn't wait to tear those mush heads a new one with that thing. "All right, ladies, let's get it on!" He began firing into the infected streaming toward them below.

Louis and Bill took positions on his flank to defend two access points along some pipes extending to nearby buildings, as Zoey positioned herself behind them to pick up any zombies that made it through and to defend Betty and Zeph, who perched up on top of some air handling ducts to keep out of the way.

The zombies began to charge across the rooftops, as Francis opened fire, blasting the large caliber weapon along the lines of incoming zombies, reducing them to pulp. The others picked off the few that were able to make it through. The horde dwindled and died down, leaving an odd silence behind.

The building suddenly began to shake and they looked around frantically, trying to spot the tank. It appeared from behind one of the buildings, throwing chunks of concrete at them. Francis loaded another belt on the minigun and began firing on it. The bullets were hitting home, but with little apparent effect. The pink monstrosity tore off a chunk of concrete and hurled it at the minigun, knocking it over and smashing Francis to the ground. Louis quickly helped the big man stagger back to his feet, as the tank climbed up to the roof. Francis grabbed an auto shotty from their weapons pile and quickly began pumping shells into the tank, as the other survivors split up and continued to fire at the beast. Betty and Zeph cowered under the air units, hoping the tank would ignore them.

The tank roared in frustration, irritated by the pesky shotgun blasts coming from Francis. It reached out and batted him away like a plaything, he tumbled across the roof and down the stairs where he lay motionless. Bill, Louis and Zoey concentrated their fire on the mutant and it finally went down, slumping to the ground near Betty and Zeph.

Bill and Louis ran down to Francis, hauling him unceremoniously back up to the rooftop. Bill slapped him a couple of times, which had no effect, then he tipped a bottle of water over his face. Francis came sputtering back to consciousness.

"This ain't no time for a nap, Francis!" Bill looked over at him grimly as he quickly readied more clips for the M16. "Get your gorilla ass back up and get ready for the next wave!"

"Hold yer beard, old man! I'm comin'…" Francis staggered back to his feet, shaking the cobwebs out as he wiped away the blood pouring from some cuts on his head.

"Hold on for a second…" Betty stopped him and quickly taped up the cuts. He grinned and gave Zeph a rub on the head, the boy looked frightened as he stared anxiously at the blood covering Francis.

"Even us super heroes get dinged up sometimes, but we come back even harder!" He gave a smile and winked to the boy as he restocked with ammo.

The infected began to pour in again, so Francis grabbed an M16 and trained it down on them. Between Francis and Bill, few zombies made it as far as the roof. Any that did were quickly finished by Louis and Zoey.

They heard the thudding of the chopper, just as they heard the roaring bellow of another tank. They looked at each other in disbelief. Two tanks?! Really?!

Francis quickly loaded up the auto shotty and grabbed up more shells. "Get to the choppaah!" He bellowed back to the others. "I'll hold the bastard off!" He ran down the stairs in the direction of the tank, holding a Molotov. The others began to make their way to the chopper, battling their way through the horde. They could hear the auto shotty barking, as the tank circled around near the base of the helipad.

Suddenly, everything went to hell. A boomer spewed bile all over them and they could barely see what was happening. The next thing Bill knew he had made it to the helipad, with Louis and Zoey. Betty and Zeph were nowhere in sight. It sounded like Francis was still battling the tank, they could hear roars and more blasts from the shotgun. They finally spotted Betty, she was all the way at the end of the ramp with a smoker beating on her and Zeph huddled on the ground nearby. Zoey took careful aim and shot the smoker off, but Betty slumped to the ground and didn't move. Zoey was just getting ready to run over to help when a fire sprung up near Betty, probably a gas can had caught a stray round.

Francis jumped to the helipad, he had finally finished off the damned tank. He looked at the others in confusion, wondering where Betty and Zeph were. Then he saw Betty on the ground, separated from them by the fire, with Zeph curled on the ground not far away from her. He began to run toward them, calling to Zeph.

In disbelief he watched as Zeph walked straight toward the fire, trying to get to his grandmother. He roared for him to come back, but the boy paid no attention, he seemed fixated by the sight of his grandmother and continued to walk toward her limp body. Francis swore and ran to intercept him. He heard a thunderous roar as he jumped off the helipad and turned his head to come face to face with another tank. Before he could even think of reacting, he was flying through the air. That's the last thing he clearly remembered.

Bill watched Francis get batted past him and looked down toward the end of the ramp, seeing Betty start writhing as the fire began to consume her, soon joined by Zeph, his clothes flaring up as the fire flashed over him. Horror washed over the group as they heard Betty and Zeph start to scream in a keening wail. Wiping his trembling hand across his face, Bill took careful aim and fired one burst and then another, until the two forms lay still on the pavement. It was all he could offer them, a twisted kindness.


	4. Hard Landings

_The fire flared up, sputtering and roaring. He could see Zeph kneeling next to Betty, he closed his eyes and put a tattooed arm up to shield his face as he jumped toward them through the fire._

_"Come on! We've got to go! Chopper's here!" He yelled to them as he jumped through the flames, he felt a searing heat on his skin. Neither one looked at him or even seemed to notice he was there._

_He reached out to grab Zeph and pull him away from the fire, but his hand passed right through him, as if he were merely a shadow. He turned to try to lift Betty, but her body began to dissolve like a mist in front of his eyes._

_The sputtering of the fire began to take on a steady, loud, rhythmic beat…_

He came to with a jolt on the roughly vibrating floor of the chopper, he could see Bill and Louis sitting on jump seats along one end. He pushed himself bolt upright, looking around in confusion. The only other occupant of the chopper was Zoey. No Zeph, no Betty.

"Where's…" He began to ask, as his eyes widened in shock. They couldn't have left them behind. No way, Bill would never do that!

"Didn't make it." Bill cut him off curtly, looking away out the window. Louis shook his head as he sat, head bowed, looking at the floor. Zoey was curled up near him, clutching her knees to her forehead and rocking slightly. She seemed to be crying.

He slumped back down and let his head fall back to the floor. What in the fuck just happened? Why did it have to be this way? They didn't deserve that. And why the hell was he spared? If anybody deserved to lose their life out on that roof, it was surely him, not them. None of this made any sense. He had no clue how he managed to make it into the chopper. Well, whatever had happened, he had definitely fucked up. If he hadn't, they all would have made it. He closed his eyes and pressed his hand to his badly aching head, wincing in pain. He would rest for a couple of minutes, then sit up and take some pills. That was the general plan, but he passed out again before he managed to do it.

Bill glanced over at Francis, he wasn't surprised to see him fade back out of consciousness. That tank had laid a lick on him that would have killed most other men outright, but Francis was one tough son of a bitch, it would take more than that to kill him. Luckily for Francis, when it smacked him, it had batted him practically into the chopper. They simply grabbed him up and heaved him in and took off, before the tank could attack the chopper. Bill wished he could have a cigarette, but he was out. Anything to help stop his hands from trembling, which they'd been doing ever since he had to shoot the woman and boy.

Bill felt the chopper take a sharp dip, then pitch over to one side. He gave a concerned look to Zoey and Louis as he started to unbuckle himself from his seat. He walked over to the pilot and put his hand on his shoulder, the man turned to him with glazed, reddened eyes as he lurched up and grasped for Bill's throat, trying to bite him. He heard a loud pop, as a bullet splattered the creature's brains out the back of his head and all over the inside of the windshield. The chopper began to spin wildly, as Bill jumped into the pilot's seat and tried to regain control of the craft. He could see the ground spinning up toward them, as he tried to stabilize it. It was too late, one of the blades hit something and the helicopter tumbled sideways and spun itself into the ground.

Francis woke, face down, breathing dirt. He fucking hated waking up like that. It never boded well. It usually meant he'd gotten his ass kicked but good by some person or persons who just left him lying there. With a groan he rolled over onto his back. His whole body ached and screamed in pain, he must have gotten a serious whipping last night. He looked up to see nothing but sky, and smoke. Something was burning nearby.

Suddenly there was a face peering down at him. The guy looked down with concern. "You ok, man? I thought you were dead for sure. Can you sit up? Here, let me give you a hand." The man reached down and pulled him to a sitting position. His sluggish brain finally kicked a name back to him. Louis. The guy's name was Louis, he wasn't sure how he knew him at the moment.

He looked around him and it all started to come back in disjointed pieces. Zombies, Zoey, Bill, safe-rooms, giant mutant zombies, and a helicopter. He wondered if he was hallucinating, it was all just too bizarre. He stared over at the crashed chopper as Louis helped him to his feet. Where was everyone else?

He found them nearby, patching themselves together as best they could with the med kits they salvaged from the helicopter. The only weapons they could find were some pistols, a shotgun and a machinegun. Everything else had been lost in the crash.

He staggered his way over to them, they looked up with relief when they saw him.

Bill and Louis helped him sit on an upturned crate as they assessed the damages. "Well, it looks like you'll live. We just need to wrap up these cuts and you should be good to go." Bill dug through the med kit, looking for more tape.

"Got any pain meds? My head is fuckin' killin' me, feels like I pounded it straight into the ground. What the hell kind of shitty landin' was that? I'm gonna freakin' kill that pilot!" Francis held his throbbing head as it threatened to explode right off his neck.

"Too late, Zoey beat you to it. He turned zombie on us right in mid-flight. She had to shoot him off of Bill." Louis explained as he found some pain pills and handed them to Francis. "You got flung out of the chopper when it crashed. The rest of us got bounced around inside, but at least we stayed in the chopper. I can't believe you weren't killed! You've got more lives than a damn cat."

Francis gulped them down, wincing as they butterflied his cuts together and bandaged them up. He looked around them at the surrounding warehouses, wrecked vehicles and smoldering fires. The crashed helicopter wasn't even the biggest wreck on the block.

"Anybody have a clue where the hell we are?" Francis stood and straightened up painfully once they were finished.

"Nope, no clue. The chopper was headed toward a temporary CEDA evac shelter set up in some stadium. I think it's not too far away, we just need to find it." Bill stood up and rubbed his sore shoulder.

"Fuckin' perfect! Well, it better not be too far away. I feel like shit, even my ass hurts. I ain't gonna make it much farther without some food and rest." Francis looked around him in disgust as he grabbed up the shotgun and some med supplies. The rest of the group geared up and got ready to depart. Francis noted that the only one not limping painfully along was Louis. He hoped like hell they wouldn't need to run from anything or they were going to be seriously hosed.

"Hey, Zoey!" Francis yelled as he stood over a body on the ground. "Here's the pilot in case you wanna shoot him again!"

Zoey rolled her eyes, leave it to Francis to joke about something like this. "He was a zombie, Francis! He. Was. A. Zombie !"

Francis just shrugged and headed off on point, as the others formed up behind him. He checked the back of a nearby truck, grabbing up a tire iron to use as a melee weapon.

They made their way down an alley, shooting any infected that they found. A tractor trailer blocked their way, forcing them to detour through a warehouse. Inside they found a pipe bomb and a couple of Molotovs. They were just about to jump off a loading dock out of the building when Zoey gave a cry and was dragged backward. A smoker had snagged her right through a skylight on top of the building. Bill quickly turned and killed it with a blast from the submachine gun he carried. Zoey fell heavily to the floor with a muffled curse.

Francis helped her back to her feet. "Nap times over, sweetie. Let's get you up, we gotta keep movin'." He gave her a small smile and patted her lightly on the back. Girl had some guts, he had to give that to her. She hadn't cracked yet, even after all they'd been through.

They continued along, wending their way through the alleys, under a bridge and up a hill, where they found a pile of ammo, some weapons and a large artillery cannon mounted on a trailer behind a truck with a mounted minigun. They helped themselves to the weapons as they looked at the blocked bridge.

"Big ass cannon and a blockaded bridge. Any ideas?" Zoey looked over at the others with a grin.

Francis chuckled and cranked the cannon, firing it into the blockade. He jumped up to man the minigun as they heard the screams from the horde start up around them.

"Holy shit, here they come! Just pretend they're all chopper pilots, Zoey!" He flashed her a crooked grin.

She glared back at him. "ZOMBIE, Francis! ZOMBIE, ZOMBIE, ZOMBIE!" He just laughed at her as he began lighting up the zombies streaming towards them.

The others jumped on the truck with him as they tried to repel the hundreds of infected flooding toward the truck. Soon they were firing almost continuously into the throngs of undead clambering up, covering the truck. The crowd eventually thinned out and they were able to catch their breath as they finished off the last of them.

They jumped off the truck and made their way over to cross the cluttered bridge. Francis looked over at a sign on the partially destroyed building they were passing. "Hey, "For Lease"…anybody got a pen and paper so I can write this number down?"

"Damn, Francis! I didn't know you could read!" Louis grinned over at the biker. Zoey giggled, Francis had really walked into that one. "Once we get outta here, I'm gonna give your ass a job!"

Francis gave a snort, shook his head and growled out a chuckle as he continued leading them over the bridge to the other side.

Louis spotted a safe-room sign in a warehouse down the hill. They heaved sighs of relief, they couldn't get in there fast enough to suit them.

They hurried forward, intent on getting into the safe-room, only to be blasted with a spray of bile from a boomer hidden behind a truck. They were instantly inundated with infected clawing and biting at them. They couldn't see a thing, they didn't dare shoot for fear of wounding their companions. Francis struck out with the tire iron, blindly trying to fend them off. A screaming shriek drew their attention, as a hunter pounced out from the horde, jumping on Bill as it raked at his chest with its long claws. Bill shouted in pain as Francis quickly rushed to his aid, killing the hunter with the tire iron.

"Back to the fight, Billy!" Francis jerked Bill back onto his feet with one hand as he crushed the skull of a zombie attempting to bite him in the neck with the tire iron in his other hand.

They finally managed to finish off the horde and limped their way into the warehouse and safe-room. They quickly slammed the door shut and collapsed on the floor to catch their breath, staring at each other in exhausted disbelief.

"So…is there anybody left who _hasn't_ been scratched or bit now?" Francis looked over at Bill, who now had a set of hunter scratches on his chest.

Zoey shook her head and held out her arm, to show a long scratch down her forearm. She looked grimly at the others, it looked like none of them were going to make it.

"Guys? Is it possible to be immune from the virus?" Louis asked quietly as he sat against the wall.

They all looked at each other and shrugged. Nobody really knew what to expect with this damned infection.

"Um…'cause I got bit quite a while ago and so far I'm fine. Francis, too. Maybe we're immune to the virus. It's possible you are too. I mean, we've been close enough to them for a long time. It seems like anybody who could get infected already has been." Louis looked hopefully over at the others.

Nobody answered, they simply had no idea what they were dealing with.

"Well," Francis finally offered, "On the plus side, we can split up the watch four ways now. Seems like we've all got an equal chance of turnin'."

"Let's clean and disinfect the wounds as best we can. Maybe that will be enough to stop the virus." Bill started rooting through his med kit for disinfectant and ointment.

Francis heaved himself off the floor and went in the bathroom to clean the bile off himself and his clothes as best he could. The tap water wasn't working, but there were numerous large jugs of water stacked on the floor. He plugged up the sink and partially filled it with water, using it to rinse his clothing and wash himself off. He found a blanket to wrap around himself while he hung up his clothes to dry.

Louis, Bill and Zoey took their turns in the bathroom, following Francis' example. They gathered together afterward to clean up their wounds, coat them with antibiotic and bandage them up.

They looked through the safe-room for food, finding a few cans of beans, a can of brown bread and some canned yams. It was better than nothing, so Zoey and Louis, the most able-bodied at this point, began getting supper together. Francis grabbed a sleeping bag and lay down to rest for a few minutes, while Bill followed suit shortly after.

Francis woke to the comforting smell of cooked food, as Zoey tentatively shook his shoulder again.

"Geez, Francis, come on! We're gonna eat without you if you don't get a move on." She playfully smacked him on the shoulder as she straightened up and headed back toward the table where they'd set the food.

Francis groaned and pushed himself to his feet. He'd never felt so stiff in his life, sacking out on the floor wasn't helping much either. Even when he'd been beaten to within an inch of his life in brawls or Hell's Legion's wars, he'd never felt this badly banged up. The others didn't look much better than he felt.

They divided up the food and ate in silence. Francis couldn't help thinking sadly about Betty and Zeph. He would gladly give up his share of the food to them, if only they could be there to take it. He tossed his empty plate in the overflowing trash with a sigh and went back to lie down. He had taken the last watch shift to get the most rack time, might as well take advantage of it and start sleeping now. He lay back down, doing his damndest not to think about what had gone down this day.

Louis was on the first watch, he started cleaning his weapon as he watched the others bed down and go to sleep. He felt uncomfortable that they hadn't really talked about what happened on the rooftop yet, the whole thing felt unresolved. Kind of like an open wound that hadn't even begun to bleed yet. He frowned to himself as he began to strip down the machinegun.


	5. Juggernaut

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you are all enjoying the new story. Please feel free to give some feedback on it, or a review. Thanks to those who have reviewed or sent a PM to me, your encouragement is very much appreciated!

Francis stared silently out the barred door as the night faded away to a misty dawn. He kept going over everything that had happened on the roof, over and over and over. Trying to make some sort of sense out of it, trying to sort out where he had failed them. The looks on their frightened faces on the rooftop were seared into his brain. He cursed bitterly, shoving away from the door as he went to wake the others.

They quietly gathered their gear together and filed out of the safe-room. There was no food, so they would just have to hope they could turn something up along the way. Some writing on the wall by previous survivors indicated that there might be a truck depot worth checking out nearby, so they decided to try to find it.

They exited the safe-room, finding themselves in a cluster of warehouses and office buildings. Abandoned vehicles were parked haphazardly among the burnt and ruined buildings. The infected stumbled mindlessly through the rubble, exuding a pall of misery and suffering.

Francis was in a viciously foul mood. He wasn't bothering with his shotgun, he was using his tire iron to smash the infected to pieces as if he had some personal grudge against each and every one of them. Bill raised an eyebrow as he watched the angry giant smash his way through a group of zombies in a warehouse. He knew Francis was venting some serious frustration. He just hoped he would stop soon, before he exhausted himself. There was no telling how much farther they would have to go today. Bill sighed, not much they could do except follow along and watch his back.

Smashing the mush heads to bits was a little satisfying, but it didn't really help numb the pain that Francis was feeling. Eventually he put the tire iron away and got out the shotgun.

They worked their way through several warehouses, picking up some med supplies and ammo from some of them. They were just about to go through an open-ended shipping container when they heard a familiar growl and huffing. Somewhere up ahead a tank was waiting to greet them.

"Hold up!" Bill whispered sharply to the group. "Let's set a trap for that bastard!"

They gathered up some gas cans from the surrounding buildings and set them up for the giant mutant. As the others positioned themselves to spring the trap, Francis carefully walked through the shipping container and crept forward, trying to figure out where the tank was. He couldn't hear the growling anymore, so maybe the thing had moved away. He was just about to turn around and head back to the others when a car came flying down the alley toward him. He jumped to the side and pressed himself against the wall as the car careened past. He raised the shotgun to his shoulder and quickly fired several shots into the massive beast. It roared and charged, galloping along toward him as he raced back to the shipping container, hoping like hell that he was faster than it was.

He bolted through the container, jumping over a strategically placed gas can. He was only just ahead of the rampaging tank, it swiped at him as it entered behind him. A gunshot rang through the container as Zoey placed a shot directly into the gas can, igniting it. The tank roared in fury as it was enveloped in flames.

Francis moved quickly away from the inferno, as Bill and Louis began firing upon it, distracting it enough for Francis to slip away behind a tractor trailer. The tank bellowed, turning in confusion toward its new targets. It galloped toward them, as they lit another can on fire in front of it. Howling in frustration, the tank pried up some pavement and flung it toward Bill and Louis. Francis snuck up behind it and began to blast it with the shotgun, until it finally collapsed to the scorched ground. He smiled grimly as he looked at the burning heap of flesh in front of him. That was for Betty and Zeph.

They grouped back together and continued on their way, until they came to a large, fenced in enclosure. They had made it to the truck depot. They clambered over to the top of a tractor trailer rig parked near the fence and hopped down into the enclosure. They cautiously made their way through the truck yard and into a large mechanic's building, where they found a minigun mounted on top of a shed and several vehicles in various stages of repair. One of the lifts held a large truck heavily modified with a cow pusher and armor to withstand attack.

"I got an idea! Let's get in that truck, step on the gas, and not stop 'til we see the army!" Francis gestured to the truck high up on the lift.

"Sounds like a plan to me, let's do it." Bill agreed as he scanned the repair bay. "We'll have to start that generator, though. That's gonna call all the zombies in on us, probably exactly what killed the owners of that rig." Bill jerked his head toward several corpses piled in a corner, probably where the poor bastards had made a failed last stand.

Francis shrugged. "You got a better idea?"

"Nope. Don't think we have much choice. We just need to play it smarter, set everything up ahead of time to try to handle the horde. There's plenty of gas cans and some propane tanks, we should be able to set up a little surprise for them. Come on, let's get to it. The sooner we get this over with the sooner we'll get out of this shithole." Bill shouldered his weapon and began to collect gas cans and position them at the obvious points of entry into the building. The others did the same and soon they were ready to start the generator.

Francis stood ready behind the minigun, as Louis and Bill went out to start up the gennie. He glanced over at Zoey. She was clutching her hunting rifle tightly, tension and strain etched across her face as she bit down on her lower lip. Seeming to sense his eyes on her, she looked up.

He shot her a lop-sided grin. "So…just a ballpark guess, about how many chopper pilots _have _you shot?"

She rolled her eyes at him and gave a huff of annoyance. "None. Because you know what? He was a ZOMBIE! He was never gonna land that thing, so he wasn't really a pilot anymore."

He grinned as he pulled the bolt back on the minigun and checked its field of fire once more. "Guess we'll never know, will we? Just don't shoot me when I try to drive this rig outta here, ok?" He glanced back over at her, his smirk giving him away.

"Fine. Can I shoot you when you're not driving?" She rolled her eyes again as she shook her head.

He looked over at her with a big, leering smirk. "Aww, sweetheart. You don't need to go that far to get my attention!" He grinned and winked suggestively at her.

She glared furiously back at him, "Why, you…you…obnoxious, egotistical, scruffy, smelly jerk wad! I wouldn't want your "attention" if you were the last man on earth!"

"Hmmm…methinks she doth protest too much! And who the hell are you callin' "scruffy"? Don't worry, darlin', I clean up just fine. You'll be eatin' those words if I do end up bein' the last man on earth!" He grinned to himself as he watched Louis and Bill run back into the building.

"I fucking hate you, Francis! You suck!" She scowled fiercely at him as she raised her rifle up and automatically picked off some zombies racing after Bill.

"Awww…ain't that sweet. I hate you, too, Princess." Francis shot her a wide grin as he opened up with the minigun on the zombies starting to stream into the building and over the fence. Mission accomplished, as far as he was concerned. He'd gotten Zoey to go from scared and nervous to full-on angry, zombie killing awesomeness. Hopefully she wouldn't really shoot him later.

Bill, having heard the last exchange between the two, gave them a puzzled look. Francis had clearly pissed Zoey off somehow, she looked completely infuriated. He grimaced in annoyance as he picked off an infected that was about to jump on Francis' back. He was getting sick and tired of babysitting these kids. He heard a roar and automatically turned to light up a gas can and set a tank on fire. The whole thing was becoming completely routine, he thought, as he fired his M16 into the flaming hulk. They killed it before it could even climb up to them.

Things were going as well as could be expected, with Francis mowing the zombies down with the minigun and the rest of the team picking off any that made it through and any special infected that showed up. The truck was almost down when the generator cut out.

"Son of a bitch!" Francis swore, as the building was plunged into darkness. "Generator's quit! Who's going to go fire it back up?"

Nobody replied. The idea of running out into that chaos, in the dark, with hundreds of zombies, was not an appealing one.

"Oh for Chrissakes, I'll go!" Francis growled in disgust. He jumped down to the floor, blasting any approaching zombies back with his shotgun. He made his way out to the generator and worked on getting it started back up. It coughed and sputtered, nearly catching.

"Come on, come on! You piece of shit generator! Start!" It finally caught, just as a shrieking black form pounced on him, knocking him flat on his back.

"Get it off, get it off!" Francis howled as he tried to fend off the creatures sharp claws. Rifle shots rang out and the hunter fell off of him, dead. He dragged himself back to his feet, clutching his shoulder. The fresh bullet wound stung and he could feel the blood trickling out.

"You shot me!" He looked up at Zoey with an astonished expression.

She just shrugged. "You weren't driving, were you? Thought you wouldn't mind."

He scowled back at her. "I was just kiddin'. Can't you take a joke?" He waited near the lift as the truck was nearly on the ground.

"Stop whining, you big baby. At least I got the hunter off you." She waited alongside him as Bill and Louis jumped down to stand next to them.

"Yeah, well you didn't have to fuckin' shoot me, too. This hurts!" He frowned as he peered between his fingers at the bullet hole.

"I didn't have to, it was just a bonus. Felt good, though. You deserved it." She smirked at him as she jumped in the back of the truck.

A giant piece of concrete smashed Francis and Louis to the ground, as the roar of a tank emerged from behind another truck.

Bill gave a small smile as he turned and fired a round into a pile of gas and propane piled in the corner nearest the tank. There was a huge explosion, then nothing but the spattering sound of blobs of tank flesh raining down around them. He helped Louis to his feet, and they both hauled Francis up and got in the truck.

Bill took the wheel and threw it into gear, as they screeched their way out of the compound. The truck effortlessly plowed through the horde, sending pieces and parts of zombies flying through the air. It rumbled along, crushing everything in its path, bulling its way through the vehicles blocking their escape route. Bill activated the wipers to clear the windshield of the blood and unidentifiable goop resulting from the carnage.

Francis grinned, in spite of his pain. Even with the bullet wound, it had been a great day, filled with killing zombies and exploding shit. They had beaten the odds and finally escaped.


	6. CEDA Blows

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the wait on this next chapter, this was a long one that took me a while to write. I hope you like it!

They were forced to pull the truck over and stop, once it became dark. It was difficult to maneuver safely around the wreckage scattered along the road during daylight, but completely impossible at night. They could easily get stuck in a ditch or get hung up on some wreckage due to poor visibility.

They found some food stocked in the truck and had a quick dinner. Bill decided they might as well take the bullet out of Francis and then rest for the night. They gave him a big dose of painkillers and then Bill sterilized his knife with a lighter and dug the bullet out. Other than swearing a blue streak the entire time, Francis took it fairly well. Afterwards, they all found a spot in the truck to lie down and sleep.

Francis tossed and turned, trying to block out the throbbing pain from his shoulder. Try as he might, he just couldn't get comfortable. He cursed quietly as he rearranged his arm, trying to quell the throbbing.

"Zoey?" He whispered quietly as he stared into the dark.

"What? I'm trying to sleep…" She replied back with a tired sigh.

"Did you really mean it?" He turned toward her voice.

"Mean what? That you're an obnoxious, egotistical, scruffy and smelly jerk? Yes, yes I did." She chuckled softly.

"No. I mean when you said I deserved to be shot." He frowned as he remembered what she had said. For some reason it was bothering him that she seemed to think that.

She heaved a loud sigh. "No, Francis. I didn't mean that. You didn't deserve to be shot. It was an accident. I'm sorry, I should have been more careful."

"Oh. Ok then, long as you didn't mean it." It made him feel a little bit better, anyway. He hummed softly for a while until falling asleep, snoring softly.

Zoey listened to his soft humming with a smile. Badass biker, my ass, she thought to herself as she too slipped off to sleep.

The next morning, they ate more of the food stocked in the truck and started off down the road. They wove their way through the twisted wrecks and burnt out tractor trailer rigs, pushing aside the smaller vehicles in their way. They began to see large signs with arrows indicating a CEDA quarantine and evacuation site ahead. They excitedly scanned ahead for each sign, looking forward to finally making it to safety.

"Look!" Zoey pointed eagerly to a new sign. In huge block letters they read: REMOVE ALL WEAPONS AND DISARM. PROCEED SLOWLY AND PREPARE TO LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE. DO NOT APPROACH GATE UNTIL DIRECTED.

"I dunno, I don't wanna leave all the weapons. What if there are infected in there?" Francis scowled as he contemplated the sign.

"Let's stash them out of sight in the truck. That way they will be here if we end up needing 'em. If we go in there with 'em, they're just going to confiscate 'em anyway." Bill started stashing his pistols and M16 behind the seats. The others did the same, hiding them as best they could. Francis tucked a knife down his boot, he just couldn't see going in there totally unarmed. As it was, he felt naked without his shotgun in his hand.

They came to a barricade with a stop sign, but there was nobody to lift the barricade. Francis hopped out and lifted it up, while Bill drove the truck through. They proceeded down a road leading to a small sports stadium. They could see another barricade set up at the entrance, but so far no sign of any people. They continued toward the stadium entrance.

They suddenly saw a man waving to them behind the barricade. He seemed to be yelling something but they couldn't make it out. Bill rolled the window down and waved back.

The engine compartment of the truck abruptly elevated in the air, as a deafening explosion engulfed them. Zoey shrieked and Louis gave a surprised shout as the truck lurched over onto its side and debris rained down around them. They were thrown around inside, falling in one big tangle.

"Dammit! Is everyone ok?" Bill tried to disentangle himself from on top of the others.

"I would be, if you losers would get your FAT asses off me! Shit, I've got a bench breakin' my freakin' back here!" Francis complained from the bottom of the pile.

They scrambled up, apologizing to Francis as they hauled him to his feet.

"What the fuck was that?!" Francis growled as he stood up inside the truck, which was now lying on its side. He worked his way back to the rear doors and tried to open them, finally using both feet to kick them apart.

They piled out of the wrecked truck to find a dozen men, all wearing biohazard masks, with automatic weapons trained on them.

"Hands in the air, get down on the ground!" One of the men commanded.

They complied quickly, as the men approached and began to frisk them for weapons. They were allowed to get back to their feet once the searches were completed.

"What the hell were you doing? You can't just drive up here like that!" The man apparently in charge of the group yelled at them.

"And we're supposed to know that how?" Francis scowled back at him.

"Didn't they tell you at the other barricade? They aren't supposed to let anybody through without contacting us first! Freakin' bozos…" The man shook his head in disgust.

Francis and Bill exchanged a look of confusion before Francis answered him. "Uh…there's nobody at the other barricade."

The men looked at each other in surprise. "There's supposed to be four of our guys up there! Son of a bitch! The infected are closer than we thought! We better get inside and report this!" The man signaled the group to get back to the stadium. "Follow us, walk where we walk, this area is mined. Wander off the path in to the gate and you'll wind up in pieces, like your truck." He headed off, leading the rest of them back. Bill noticed a series of small flags indicating the safe path through the mine field.

They entered the stadium and immediately noticed that the center of the stadium had been enclosed in a tall, wired fence and large tents were located inside. People milled around inside the enclosure. The stench was overpowering and the field had been churned into garbage-ridden muck.

"All of you, over here!" One of the men directed them towards a door leading into the concrete tunnels surrounding the stadium. "You need to get registered and checked out." He ushered them toward a group of desks with chairs in front of them.

"Then what?" growled Francis, looking around suspiciously.

"Then? Best of luck to you all." The man gave them a grim look as he turned and hurried away.

"Have a seat and fill out these forms, please." A clerk, also in biohazard gear, handed them papers and pens.

Francis swore and threw himself down on a chair, slamming the papers onto the desk. The others sighed and sat down to do their paperwork.

Francis quickly finished and shoved the papers over to the clerk. The man looked them over with a frown. "That's it? A name? No date of birth, no address, no social security number? No work history, no medical insurance? Sir, this is unacceptable!"

Francis straightened to his full height before leaning over the table and towering above the clerk, flexing his biceps. "Sorry, I didn't catch that. What were you sayin'?"

The man gazed up fearfully, taking in the large man looming over him. "Um…nothing. You just do the best you can. It's understandable if you can't remember the details after such an ordeal…"

Francis grunted. "Got that straight, glad you've come around to seein' it my way."

The clerk collected the papers and told them to follow him. They went past a number of makeshift labs set up in the rooms off of the tunnel. Cases of greenish goo in bottles with a biohazard label lined the tunnel walls.

"What the hell is this stuff?" Bill asked, indicating the bottles.

"Some sort of bile they've been collecting from the captive infected. Acts as an attractant to the zombies, from what I've heard." The clerk shrugged and passed by without even looking. He ushered them into a waiting area and gestured for them to sit down. He deposited the paperwork in a tray and spoke to the clerk behind the desk, who nodded and disappeared into another room.

Francis threw himself down into a chair with a disgusted huff, as the others seated themselves uneasily.

After a short wait, the clerk waved them into another room, where they found a room filled with examination tables and a handful of men and women in biohazard gear and lab coats waiting for them.

Each of them was directed toward a table and lab personnel.

Francis eyed the men assigned to his table warily, crossing his arms over his chest in a defiant stance. They looked back at him, shifting nervously. Their newest patient looked very large, rather agitated and definitely uncooperative.

"Um…you need to strip down, sir. We need to examine you for injuries and wounds from infected. Put this on once you've disrobed." One of the men handed him a paper gown wrap.

Francis snorted. "You gotta be kiddin', I'm not strippin' down in front of everybody's brother and uncle here, not to mention the women. I don't think so, buddy."

One of the men spoke into a walkie-talkie and instantly a group of armed men with assault weapons entered the room and stood watching intently.

"We don't want to use force, sir. Please do as you've been instructed. You need to take everything off." The man spoke firmly to him. Francis looked around to see that others from his group were also balking at the instructions. Zoey's face was bright red, and she had her arms wrapped around herself as she shook her head. He looked back toward the armed men, who had begun to advance toward them.

Growling in irritation, Francis turned his back to all of them as he stripped his shirt and vest off. He tugged his boots and socks off, then stripped his pants off. He grabbed the paper gown and wrapped it around himself before stripping out of his shorts. He kept his eyes down, he didn't want to see any of the others being humiliated like this either.

He let them examine him, clutching tightly to the paper wrap as if it were the last shred of his dignity. They looked over and swabbed his various injuries, took a blood sample, and finished off by handing him a tube of antibiotic ointment and some tape.

Zoey was blushing furiously as she slowly stripped off her jacket. She glanced around and saw that the others were all turned away and staring at the ground. At least nobody seemed to be gawking at her. She tore her outer clothes off quickly, shoving herself into the paper wrap before stripping off her underwear. She felt like a piece of meat as they poked, prodded, swabbed and took some blood. She grabbed up her clothes, clutching them as they were directed down another hall.

They were shown to a communal shower room, were they flatly refused to shower together, insisting on being allowed to shower individually. Francis threatened to go totally apeshit if Zoey were forced to shower with the men. There was no way he was going to let her be treated that way. The shower room attendants finally conceded and rushed them through individually and allowed them to redress.

They were taken to a storeroom area, where they were each issued a blanket and a plastic id bracelet with a barcode was put on their wrist. The men took them back out of the tunnels, opened up the wire enclosure and left them in there, locking the enclosure behind them.

They looked at each other, somewhat shocked. This wasn't exactly what they were expecting, to be examined like cattle and then shoved into a cage.

Bill led the group into a nearby enormous tent. Inside they found hundreds of survivors, like themselves, huddled in groups all over the floor. Mud coated just about everything and garbage was scattered everywhere on the ground. A few people turned to eye the newcomers with blank expressions, before turning away with disinterest. One end of the tent had a long line of tables, presumable to serve food. Large jugs occupied a nearby table, accompanied with stacks of paper cups.

Francis looked around and gave a snort of disgust. "First rate accommodations. What a shithole. Is there even a dry place to lie down? We were better off in the fuckin' truck than this dump!"

"So it's not the Ritz. What did you expect, anyway? With any kind of luck we won't be here long. I'm gonna go talk to some of these people and find out what the deal is and when they will evacuate us." Bill walked off into the surrounding crowd, stopping to chat every now and again. The others searched around for a dry spot, finally finding one up against the wall near some sandbags.

Bill walked along through the crowd as most of the people either ignored him or glanced at him fearfully. He finally came upon a cluster of men who were huddled together and talking animatedly. They immediately became silent as he approached, eyeing him cautiously.

"Can we help you, buddy?" A large man stepped forward to confront him.

"Just got here." Bill said as he looked longingly at the cigarette one man was smoking. "We were wondering when they would be evacuating us, that's all."

One man gave a bitter laugh and elbowed a companion. "Evacuating, he says. Huh, how about next never?" He gave another humorless chuckle.

"What?!" Bill stared at the man, uncomprehending.

"That's right, Mister. They keep saying they're going to, but nobody ever comes for us. The only way anybody ever leaves here is in a box. I've been here for more than a week and there hasn't been a single transport. They fly supplies and personnel around occasionally, but they never take any survivors out of here." The large fellow spat in disgust on the ground.

"So what the hell is the purpose of this place, if it's not to evacuate?" Bill looked at them in confusion and concern.

"You don't wanna know. They come in here with their goons and take people out, they give them shots and other treatments. Sometimes they bring them back here, sometimes they're never seen again. Sometimes the people who've been returned after treatments get sick and die." The man looked around nervously as he practically whispered his answer to Bill.

"Are you saying they're holding us here just to experiment on us?" Bill stared at the men, aghast.

"Yep, that's about the size of it." The large man responded, his eyes flickering nervously through the crowd. "They consider all of us "contaminated" and they're just holding us here as a convenient pool of human subjects. They're never gonna let us join the evacuation. Sorry, man, but this is where it all ends." He opened his arms wide, gesturing at all of the people huddled in the mud.

"Not for me and mine, it ain't!" Bill set his jaw and abruptly turned away to go back to the others.

"Well, what's the scoop, Bill?" Francis asked from his seat among some sandbags. Louis and Zoey looked hopefully up at Bill, but their smiles faded upon seeing his frown deepen.

"Well, it ain't good news. Apparently they aren't evacuating anyone, this is just a permanent holding area for people who've been exposed to the infection. The scuttlebutt is that they take people out of here to experiment on them and sometimes they never bring them back." Bill folded his arms across his chest as he frowned down at the muck, scuffing at it with his boots.

"You've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me!" Francis exploded off the ground, glaring menacingly around him. "We come all this fuckin' way just to be corralled like cattle and used for their fuckin' experiments? You've gotta be shittin' me!"

Bill sighed in exasperation. "I wish I was. And keep it down! We don't want to call attention to ourselves here. I'm guessing trouble makers are the first to make the short list of people to take for their experiments."

"Bill? What the hell are we going to do? We can't just wait until they take us away one by one…" Zoey looked at him with fear etched across her face.

Bill gave them a look of fierce determination. "We escape. We make a plan and get the hell out of here, that's what we're going to do. We may have to leave these people behind, but we get ourselves out. Let's get some rest while I think about it. If we put our heads together, I'm sure we can figure a way out of here."

They settled down, trying to find a good dry spot. Francis threw himself across the sandbags and was soon snoring away in spite of the lumpy, uneven spot. Louis and Zoey huddled not far away, talking quietly. Bill sat down and leaned back against the sand bags holding Francis, as he tried to work out a plan.

Several hours later, there was some stirring at the far end of the tent, nearest the food tables. Bill watched as a crew unloaded vats of food and set out paper plates and cups. He was surprised to see that the people, instead of crowding around the tables to get to the food, instead milled about uncertainly, as if reluctant to go get something to eat. He watched as people timidly approached and, after their bracelet was scanned, collected some food before quickly scurrying away.

He nudged Francis awake and motioned to the others. Francis was quick to approach the table, get his bracelet scanned, and fill his plate with food. He didn't really know what the problem was with the other people being so slow to do the same, and he didn't care. He was getting ready to return to his spot and eat when they all heard a sharp beep.

It seemed as if everyone froze, holding their breath. All eyes turned toward the person that had gotten a beep when their bracelet was scanned. Zoey paled as she realized everyone was staring at her.

"Come this way, Miss." The man with the scanner directed her to stand in a nearby corner, accompanied by four guards. Zoey remained frozen in place, alternately staring at the man and her bracelet.

"Whoa…whoa! She ain't goin' anyplace with you!" Francis tossed his food on the table, rushed back and quickly pulled Zoey behind him. She clung to him in shock, head tucked against him.

"Sir, you need to step away right now! If you don't, we'll be forced to take action!" He jerked his head at the guards and two of them advanced toward Francis and Zoey.

Louis moved forward toward them, but was jerked to a halt by Bill. Bill shook his head and motioned for him to stay still. He watched the guards closely, looking for their next move.

Francis backed carefully away, keeping himself between Zoey and the guards. He wasn't sure what they planned on doing, but figured putting some distance between them would be generally a good idea.

"Step away! Last chance!" When Francis refused to get out of the way, the man nodded toward the guards. They drew their sidearms and fired immediately.

Francis cursed as he was hit in the arms, chest and neck and went down, writhing as the tasers were activated. Zoey fell to the ground convulsing too, since she had been clinging to him. The other guards motioned the crowd away with their assault weapons as their colleagues grabbed the paralyzed pair and dragged them away, out of the tent.

Bill cursed quietly as they were taken away. He needed to move the time frame of his plan way up, they couldn't afford to wait around. He looked around at the enclosure, then back at the CEDA workers waiting to take the food and trash away. He smiled as he realized this should be a piece of cake. He just needed a piece of cardboard or tape and he would be all set. He quickly found some and waited for the workers to get ready to leave.

Francis tried to struggle against the guards, but every time he did that they would just dump him on the ground and tase him again. Zoey didn't struggle, it was all she could do not to start sobbing hysterically. Francis yelled and cursed when they finally separated them, taking him off down one hall while carrying her away down another.

They brought Francis into a cell and threw him down on a cot. He started to struggle as they tried to tie restraints on him and before he even knew what was happening he felt a needle stick and then nothing more.

He woke to the sound of soft sobbing, coming from a dark corner of the cell. His wrists and ankles were restrained to the bed, his arms were sore and bruised with a wad of gauze and tape on the inside of one elbow, it looked like they had given him an IV or something. His head was aching badly and he felt a bit feverish. It took him a little while to realize that it was Zoey's crying that he was hearing.

"Zoe?" He called out quietly to her. He could hear some shifting about, as the crying gave way to hiccupping sobs and sniffles. "Zoey? If that's you, I could use your help, darlin'."

"F…Fr…Francis…" She stuttered softly as she tried to stop crying. "You…you're…ok?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure I've been better, but I ain't complainin'. Can you get these restraints off me?" He smiled slightly, just knowing she was there made him feel a hell of a lot better.

She started crying again, sobbing almost hysterically.

"Zoe? What's wrong? Tell me what the hell is going on, please!" Francis strained to see her in the dim cell. He could only make out a dim shape huddled in a corner.

In a muffled voice, she spoke again. "Francis, they told me they injected you with the virus they isolated from one of those tanks. They want to see if they can make you turn into one of them."

"What the fuck?! They _want_ to turn me into one of those things? Are they fuckin' nuts? Why the hell would they want to do that? It makes no fuckin' sense!" Francis yanked on the restraints in frustration. No wonder he felt like shit, it definitely felt like he was coming down with something. "Come on, Zoey! Get over here and let me loose!"

"From what I overheard, they want to see whether you can pass that infection off to another person. Actually, me. They took all my clothes and threw me in here, to see whether I would contract the infection from you. Either by proximity or um…physical contact, I guess." Zoey whimpered a little as she finished.

Francis slumped back limply on the bed. Shit! They wanted to make her touch him and he guessed they'd made some assumptions about what a vicious thug like him would do with a sweet naked young thing like her at his disposal. Fucking sick assholes! Too bad for them, because he wasn't the cruel, mindless brute they thought he was.

"OK, Zoey. Please come untie me. I swear I will keep my eyes completely shut, ok? I'm completely serious. I absolutely will not look, all right? I'll swear on anything you ask me to that I will not look. I'm sorry they're doin' this to you, but you need to help me out." Francis used his softest and calmest tone.

"Your vest…" Zoey said softly.

"What?" Francis asked, his eyes popping open in surprise.

"Swear on your vest." Zoey spoke firmly. "If I catch you looking, the vest gets it. I'll torch the thing right in front of you. I'm totally serious. And I won't ever finish untying you."

"All right, all right." Francis heaved a sigh and shook his head. "I swear on my vest I will not look. I promise." He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to think about anything else but being untied by a naked young woman. It wasn't working, he had to concentrate on scrunching his eyes shut tightly. He distracted himself by thinking about what the hell he would do if he turned into a tank. The first thing he was going to do was rip those fucking CEDA freaks a new one.

Zoey quickly freed him, trying to avoid checking to see whether he was looking at her or not. She slid back in the shadows and huddled behind her legs. She had no idea what the hell was going to happen now. He hadn't turned yet, but if he did, his promises would mean nothing.

Francis sat up on the edge of the cot, rubbing his wrists. He felt dizzy and queasy and feverish. He tried to shake it off, he needed to help Zoey before he turned. He ripped off his vest and pulled his t-shirt over his head.

"Here, I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do right now." He tossed the t-shirt over to Zoey, who hesitantly put it on. It was huge on her, more like a dress.

Francis put his vest back on and zipped it up. "Look, I'm real sorry about this, Zoey. Thanks for untyin' me. And you don't have to worry about me. You're like my kid sister, I'm not gonna try anything, ok? Even if you wanted me, which you don't, I never thought of you like that. Just wanted you to know, you're totally safe here."

Zoey hesitantly smiled back at him. She wasn't sure whether she felt relieved or disappointed. It was kind of a let down to be told he had no interest in her. His flirting, though completely infuriating, had reassured her that, no matter how grungy she looked, she was still attractive. His gentle refusal bothered her more than she cared to admit. She sighed and shook her head as she realized it didn't matter anyway, he was probably going to turn soon and none of that would matter.

Francis began to examine the cell closely, finally going to the door and checking out the lock. He could have picked it if he still had his lock picking set. Unfortunately, like most of his belongings, it was left behind in his room when he'd been picked up. He began to pace back and forth, rubbing his hand through his closely shaven hair as he tried to figure a way out of the cell.

He suddenly stopped and began to tremble, his muscles twitched uncontrollably. He dropped to his knees and began to convulse before falling to his side, sweating and wracked by spasms.

"Francis!" Zoey leapt to her feet and ran to him, kneeling next to him. She couldn't help noticing how pale he was, his veins were bulging out and he was sweating profusely, the sweat dripping down his pale face and running in rivulets through his hair.

"Don't…touch…me!" Francis managed to mutter. "Virus…stay away!" He was curling into a fetal position, his eyes clenched shut. Moaning in pain, he finally lost consciousness, as his body continued to twitch and spastically convulse.

Zoey huddled on the floor next to him, there was nothing she could do to help him. She grabbed a blanket off the bed and covered him, then wrapped another one around herself as she lay down curled near him. They were both going to die anyway, she figured, might as well die together. She cried hopelessly, feeling completely exhausted, so drained she couldn't even think straight. Eventually she fell into an exhausted sleep.

She awoke with a start, a man's hand was clasped across her mouth as she uttered a muffled scream of terror. She could just make out a figure leaning over her, as her cries were stifled.

"Hush girl! It's me, Bill! Nod if you understand that you need to be quiet!" Bill carefully removed his hand after Zoey nodded quickly. "Are you ok? Can you move?"

"I'm ok, but Francis isn't! They injected virus collected from a tank into him and he became ill and collapsed." Zoey looked over to Francis, who lay pale and still, tangled in the blanket.

Bill looked at her, wearing nothing but Francis' tank top. He arched an eyebrow at that, but let it go. He reached over to Francis and felt his forehead and his pulse, then lifted an eyelid, noting that the eye was rolled back almost completely. He slapped him on the cheek, but there was no response. He slapped him harder, receiving a startled grunt in response, then his eyes popped open.

"Francis! Wake the hell up, we don't have time for this!" Bill noted that there was no recognition in the blank, unfocused stare, almost like it was an autonomic response and the brain hadn't kicked in yet. He started to slap him even harder on the cheek, but a giant hand intercepted his wrist, abruptly stopping him.

"Fuck, Bill! Enough already, I'm awake, I'm awake!" Francis rumbled out as he released him. He looked wearily over at Bill, trying to shake the grogginess out of his aching head and groaning at the resulting pain.

"How are you feeling? Can you move?" Bill stood up and held his hand out to haul the big man to his feet.

"Do I have a choice?" Francis accepted the hand and staggered up to his feet. He rubbed his aching head as he tried to stop the room from spinning. "I feel kinda weak and woozy, but I think I can manage."

Bill ducked outside the door, grabbed a bag and gave it to Zoey. "Saw this out there, didn't really click that they were yours. We'll turn around so you can change."

Zoey clutched the bag containing her clothes. "Same deal as yesterday, Francis. No looking or the vest gets it. Got it?" She went off to a corner and started to get dressed.

"Zoey, darlin', you could be a super model and I wouldn't bother to look right now. I feel like death warmed over and that's really the last thing on my mind at the moment." Francis gave a snort of annoyance as he faced the wall along with Bill. His balled up tank top hit him in the back of the head as Zoey gave a short laugh. He picked it up and put it back on with a disgruntled snort. "That's the thanks I get for giving you the shirt off my back, huh?"

"Come on, you two, we got some ground to cover." Bill led them quietly out of the room and down the hall. They passed two guards, incapacitated on the ground. They continued further down the hall until they came across the crates full of bile stored in the hallway. Bill gave a soft whistle, which was answered back and Louis appeared, hidden among the crates.

"Everybody grab as much of this as you can carry. Except you, Francis. You just keep up as best you can, you're none too steady on your feet there. Do NOT drop this stuff!" Bill grabbed a case and led them down the hall and out of the tunnels. He led them over to a huge stack of crates piled under a tarp on the far side of the field, away from the tents.

"Ammo dump." Bill explained, as he set the crates down. He reached into a box in the ammo dump and pulled out some hand grenades, passing them out to the others, then stashed two in his pockets. He quickly explained his plan to them, as they crouched in the shadows.

"All right. Everybody good to go? Let's do it!" Francis and Zoey retreated to hide in the stands as Louis and Bill began smashing the bile jars into the ammo dump. They started to hear a muffled roaring and screaming from outside the stadium, as well as inside the tunnel areas.

Zombies began to appear, pouring toward the stadium gates and trying to scale the walls. Guards located at the gates commenced firing, as mines exploded outside and the zombies screeched, driven to a frenzy by the bile bombs. Through sheer numbers piling up against the gates, they began to overwhelm the guards and pour over into the stadium as others started to pour out of the tunnel areas.

The people in the tents began to emerge, screaming and throwing themselves against the enclosure wire, frantic to escape. Bill ran over and opened up an enclosure door, and the people stampeded out and scattered. He ran over and threw a grenade down into the tunnel, near the remaining stacks of bile bombs. The horrible howling and screaming from the zombies increased, as even more were attracted to the broken bile bombs.

CEDA staff had also begun to emerge from the tunnels, scrambling around in confusion, at a complete loss as to what to do. Their patients were escaping and zombies were scrambling everywhere.

Suddenly, the main stadium gates collapsed, as even more zombies swarmed through the gap and over to the ammo dump. Bill called the rest of his team over, as they began to retreat toward the stadium gates. He halted and turned back for a moment, then lobbed another grenade into the boiling mass of zombies writhing in the bile at the ammo dump.

Seconds later, a massive explosion engulfed the entire stadium as the ammo dump went up. More explosions could be heard coming from the tunnels, probably due to ruptured gas lines or smaller collections of munitions exploding. A fire ignited and spread and soon the entire stadium was in flames.

Bill led the others through the gate with little trouble, the masses of zombies were solely focused on getting to the bile and ignored them completely, rushing past as if they weren't there. A stream of escaped survivors were making their way out of the stadium and scattering into the woods. Bill led his group back to their truck, where they were able to recover their weapons and gear. They quickly geared up and moved out, heading back toward a safe-room that Bill had spotted on their way in to the CEDA stadium.

By the time they made it there, Francis was near collapse. Louis and Bill had to prop him up on each side as he staggered along. Once in the safe room, they helped him over to some bedding and he crumpled to the floor in complete exhaustion.

Bill sighed as he glanced over toward Francis, stretched out asleep on the floor. He wasn't even sure they should have brought him, it seemed inevitable that he would turn. If they really had directly injected him with virus, it was unlikely that he would survive that. But Bill had gotten attached to the big jackass, he'd done the right thing in trying to protect Zoey. Maybe not the smart thing, but Bill figured he didn't deserve to be left behind to rot just because he tried to help her. If there was any chance that he could recover, Bill intended on giving it to him. He walked over and covered the shivering hulk of a man with an extra blanket as he removed a pistol from his belt and set it aside. After further deliberation, he took out a pair of handcuffs from his gear and cuffed Francis to the stairwell post he was sleeping next to. He was too far gone to even notice. Bill wanted at least a few seconds advantage, once he did start turning.


	7. Transformations

Bill woke the next morning to assess the good and bad news. The good news was that Francis had not turned into a tank and killed them all in their sleep. The bad news was that his condition had worsened, he was feverish and delirious. He didn't appear to recognize them and was clearly hallucinating, muttering conversations with people only he could see. Bill was able to get him to drink some water and take some pain meds, which seemed to quiet him a little. He still hadn't even seemed to notice that one wrist was handcuffed to the staircase. The fact that he wasn't complaining nonstop about it gave a good indication of just how sick he was.

They ate what little food they had carried away from the truck as they went over their options.

"Well, we can either move out and leave him here or wait and see if he gets better and can continue." Bill said as he glanced over at the biker, who was currently shivering and murmuring in his sleep.

"I can't leave him like this. I won't leave him like this!" Zoey stared defiantly back at Bill. "The only reason he's in this situation is because he was trying to protect me. I'm not leaving him until he turns or is dead, that's the flat out bottom line!" She set her jaw stubbornly, as if daring them to argue with her.

"I know how you feel, Zoey. OK? You'll get no argument from me that he didn't deserve this. But life isn't fair, and sometimes it dishes out shit that you just have to accept and move on. So are we all agreed that we're going to sit tight and see what happens?" Bill searched the eyes of Louis and Zoey for any sign of disagreement, but without hesitation they both nodded.

Bill sighed and nodded slowly. "OK, then. If we're going to stay here for a while, we'll need supplies, which means we need to go out and scavenge. Zoey, you stay here with Francis. Make sure you keep a close eye on him and if he begins to turn, you'll need to get out of here before he gets loose. Can you handle that?" Bill glanced over to her as he began to gather his weapons together.

Zoey nodded solemnly back. She settled herself in a chair as Bill and Louis got their gear in order for their scavenging outing. "Hey, if you find a pharmacy, see if you can find anything that would help. Pain meds, tranquilizers, anti-inflammatories, maybe some anti-viral stuff? I remember hearing when this flu first came out that there was an anti-viral that might be helpful, but there were limited quantities."

Bill looked back to her as he opened the safe-room door and prepared to lead the way out. "Will do. Wish us luck!"

She gave a small smile as she responded. "Good luck, and wish me some, too. I've got this big oaf to take care of, while you two are having a grand old time out there!"

Bill returned a wry smile as he shut the door. "Good luck to you too, you're gonna need it with that big baboon!"

Zoey stretched and tried to get comfortable, it was going to be a long day just sitting around and staring at Francis, looking for any sign that he was changing. She couldn't help but think back to the day when they'd first met. She remembered how frightened of him she had been, how much she disliked him and how she had hoped that Bill would just shoot the big jerk. Well, to be honest, she sometimes still thought about shooting him, particularly when he was teasing her about something or other. She smiled sadly as she looked over at him, that super-sized dumbass really did sort of grow on you over time. Especially when the big dope had to go and get all chivalrous on her.

She sighed as she went over to him with a cold cloth to put on his forehead. He probably wouldn't even notice, but it might help a little with the fever. She knelt down and put the cloth on, pressing down on it. She squeaked and flinched in surprise when his large hand clasped over hers.

He squinted up at her through bloodshot eyes. "Zoey? Where are we? What's goin' on? Why the cuffs?" He pulled weakly on his cuffed wrist, making the metal clang against the stair.

She gave a tense smile, at least he recognized her. "We're in a safe-room. You're currently lazing around in bed, pretending to be sick. The cuffs are just a precaution in case you turn. Bill and Louis are out scavenging, they should be back in a bit. How are you feeling?"

"Terrific, never been better." He rolled his eyes at her as he tried to sit up, failing miserably. "Actually, this sucks. A lot. Everything just aches like crazy and I've got a splitting headache. Are there any pain meds?"

"Well," she answered tentatively, "yes. But you've already taken some not that long ago, I guess I can give you a couple more. Hang on a sec." She got up and shook out a couple more pills and brought them over with some water.

He leaned toward the side, popped them in his mouth and drank some water from the cup she held for him. Even that small effort seemed to exhaust him, he fell back onto the bedding, his face gray. He looked back up to her, his expression troubled. "Look, I'm real sorry to be holding everyone up like this. I appreciate your staying with me, but maybe you should all just go. I'll catch up when I get over this…" He slid his eyes away from her uneasily.

She let out a huff of annoyance. "As if. We're not going to leave you. We'll wait until you get better, it's already decided. You just hurry up and get better, don't make me kick your weak ass all the way to the evac zone. 'Cause you know I'll do it, too." She gave him a light slap on the shoulder as she sat down next to him.

"Ow, you're rough! Hit a guy when he's down, not to mention hand cuffed…" Francis gave her a weak smile, then closed his eyes. "But thanks, Zoe. Don't tell Bill or Louis I said this, but I think you guys are all right. Might even grow to like you, if I live long enough…" He faded back to sleep then, his head lolling over to one side. Zoey quietly rose from the floor and sat back down in the chair, fiddling with some cards as she kept an eye on him.

Francis remained quiet, almost unmoving, the rest of the time. Zoey tried to convince herself that he was improving, since he wasn't twitching, shivering or talking deliriously anymore, but she was finally forced to admit that he was actually getting worse. He wasn't doing any of those things anymore because he simply wasn't able to. He seemed barely alive, even his breathing had gotten labored and slow. She started to freak out a little and tried to shake him awake, but wasn't able to get a response. She paced, anxious for Bill and Louis to get back. She didn't know what she would do if Francis were to die right in front of her.

Bill finished cramming as much food as he could into one of those cloth sacks they sold at the cash registers for the earnest environmentalists who had forgotten theirs that day. He and Louis had just broken into a small grocery store which, they discovered, still had some supplies left in the back warehouse area. They had gathered together as much as they could carry and prepared to head on out.

They had encountered few zombies on their trip, Bill was surprised and a bit puzzled by that. Well, he hoped their luck held on the way back. They grabbed up the bags and headed out the door, retracing their steps back to the safe-room. They hugged the buildings as they cautiously crept down the road.

Bill heard an odd shuffling noise and came to a stop. They hunkered down behind a van as they searched for the source of the noise. Bill suddenly stiffened and softly swore as he spotted the tank slowly shuffling its way up the street toward them. He hoped he was wrong, but it looked like Francis might have finished his transformation. He elbowed Louis and motioned for him to follow.

They carefully crept through the broken door of a nearby bookstore, retreating through the back of the store. They cautiously made their way down the alley, trying to circumvent the tank, praying that they wouldn't encounter any infected or anything that might make noise and draw the tank down on them.

Bill carefully edged his way to the corner of the building to take a look down the road, to see if the tank was out of sight yet. No such luck, the creature was standing in the middle of the street and making no effort to leave. Bill withdrew back behind the building to make a plan. After a quick whispered conversation with Louis, Bill set down the sacks and went back up the alley a little ways. He armed and threw a pipe bomb down the alley as far as he could. Once it blew, he expected the tank to charge toward the sound, giving them a chance to cross the street and make their way back to the safe-room, which was about 2 blocks away.

The pipe bomb exploded and with a roar, the tank was on its way up the street. They hastily ran across the street once it was out of sight. Almost immediately, they heard the siren from a car alarm go off, followed shortly by screaming and howling echoing through the streets. Bill looked sharply at Louis, they would need to run as fast as they could to make it to the safe-room. If they were delayed by any zombies, it was a sure thing that the tank wouldn't be far behind. Luckily for them, it seemed the horde was converging on the car alarm and they did not encounter any on their run back to the safe-room.

Zoey jumped slightly, startled by the door clanging open. Bill and Louis rushed in, slammed the door behind them and barred it as they also pushed some file cabinets in front of it and threw a blanket across the barred window. They turned to her with faces flushed from running. She looked at them quizzically.

Bill gave her the short explanation, as he panted. "Saw a tank."

Louis nodded, as he bent over his knees trying to catch his breath. "Don't think it saw us, though." He straightened and glanced over at the still form of Francis. "Worried that it might have been him."

Zoey shook her head morosely as she looked down at his still form. "He's not turning, he's just dying." She looked over to Bill. "Please tell me you found some meds that might help. If he doesn't get something now I don't think he'll make it."

Bill quickly went over to Francis and examined him. Bill frowned as he found a thready and weak pulse, with shallow respirations. "Well, we found some stuff that might help. I just hope it ain't too late." He rapidly unpacked the med supplies they had found in a small clinic. Within minutes he had an IV running and was ready to inject meds into it.

Bill pulled out a vial from a white and blue box labeled "Zombrex" as he showed the box to Zoey. "We struck gold in a clinic. They had a lock box with several boxes of this stuff in it, it's an anti-viral that is supposed to combat this virus. I just hope we got it here in time. Says to give one vial by IV, followed by another in 8 hours." Bill pulled the contents of the vial into a large syringe, then injected it into the IV. "Now we just cross our fingers and wait." Bill reached down and pulled the blanket back over Francis.

They unpacked the rest of the supplies that Bill and Louis had scavenged, Zoey was impressed by how much food they had managed to find.

"We found a house where somebody had obviously been hoarding food. There's enough stuff down in the basement there to live on for more than a year. Trouble is, you need to dodge a tank to get to it." Bill explained as he quickly gulped down a granola bar.

Louis and Zoey began to gather items to make a dinner, while Bill went through the med supplies, arranging them on a shelf.

Zoey suddenly gasped in shock. "Bill!" He whipped around to see her covering her mouth with both hands as she stared at Francis, who had begun to gasp and had turned a very unnatural shade of red.

"Shit! Allergic reaction, I think!" Bill scrabbled frantically through the med supplies he had just organized. Grabbing a syringe he immediately rushed over and grabbed Francis by the bicep and plunged the syringe into the muscle. "Somebody get the goddamn flyer out of the box and look for the list of adverse reactions!"

Zoey grabbed the box and ripped the paper out, frantically looking for the information. "Why the fuck didn't we read this thing first?! Shit!" Zoey flipped the paper around, desperately looking for the right section.

Bill tried to pin Francis down as he began to writhe and buck off the ground, his eyes clenched shut and his mouth open in a silent scream. Louis scrambled over to assist him.

Francis threw them both aside like rag dolls as he abruptly sat up, eyes popping open in a wide-eyed, startled expression. "HOLY FUCK!" He bellowed, gasping as he clutched his chest with his free hand, then passed out cold, falling back to the floor with a thud. His color slowly faded from bright red and he started to breathe more normally.

Bill reached over and felt for his pulse, which was stronger and more regular, but very rapid. He sighed and pulled the blanket back over him. "Damn! I'm really getting way too old for this shit. I think he's doing better, for now anyway."

"Wait, wait! Here it is…Turning red, severe chest pains, difficulty breathing is…an allergic reaction to the medicine!" Zoey read to them from the flyer.

Bill glanced over at her with a frown, which faded to a wry smile. "Yeah, think we've got it covered. Guess we really should have been a bit more prepared for that, I was just hurrying because he was in such bad shape."

Zoey and Louis finished getting the meal together, as Bill finished reorganizing the meds and thoroughly reading the anti-viral flyer. They ate quickly and set the watch shifts, setting it up so that Bill would be able to administer the second dose of anti-viral on his watch.

The night passed uneventfully, as did the second dose of medicine for Francis. Bill had read on the insert that the allergic reaction could be avoided by giving a small adrenaline injection prior to infusing the anti-viral, so he tried that and it worked like a charm. They would just have to wait and see whether the anti-viral meds helped at all.


	8. Run Like Hell

Sweat was pouring down her face, dripping stinging into her eyes. She glanced to the side as she tried to wipe it away, she saw a few other people were still up. Every once in a while, one of them would glance back with a look of sheer terror, which seemed to spur them on for a few seconds. She expected to feel the grasping hands of the undead clutching her at any second, she wasn't the fastest of the group, but so far, she'd been fast enough.

They had all been waiting, standing in the endless lines, zigzagged with crowd control barriers when the first wave of zombies descended upon them. Many people never even moved, standing like sheep as the infected tore them down. She'd jumped the barriers or pushed through them to get to open ground and ran as fast as she could. Thankfully, she still trained and ran regularly, otherwise she would have been pulled down long ago.

As she ran, she clutched a large pistol in her hand. She'd already had to use it a few times, and not always on the zombies. Desperate men saw her with the weapon and tried to take it from her, she'd shot them down without even breaking stride. Any delay could mean death, this was no time to be soft. It was kill or be killed time, survival of the fittest.

The few survivors from the evacuation zone were starting to slow, she would hear their sporadic cries whenever they were dragged down. She didn't even bother to look any more. She just tried to concentrate on running as fast as she could manage, for as long as she could manage it.

Finally, she glanced back. She hadn't heard any cries in a while and was wondering what the deal was. She slowed to a stop and whirled around in disbelief. There was no one in sight at all. No zombies and no survivors. It looked like she was the last one standing. She holstered her weapon and hitched up the pack on her back, it was sliding all over and chafing her, her back was slick with sweat. She was glad there wasn't much in it, any more weight and she would have had to discard it.

The next order of business was to find someplace safe to rest, it would be dark soon and there was no way she wanted to be out in the woods with zombies in the dark. She didn't know the area at all, she just hoped she would hit a road and be able to orient herself a bit.

Moving as quietly as possible through the woods, she finally came to a road. It was cluttered with deserted and wrecked vehicles of every kind. Luckily for her, there were few zombies and the ones she did encounter seemed oblivious to everything except their own misery. She easily approached and killed them quietly with her katana. The late day sun gave way to dusk and she realized she would have to find somewhere to hole up very soon.

She came upon an armored truck, used for cash collections and transfers, over on its side in a ditch. A partially eaten corpse, dressed in a security guard's uniform, dangled out the window. She searched the uniform and found the key to the back of the truck and unlocked it. Bags and bags of cash lay within, all over what used to be the side of the van but was now its floor. She entered and carefully locked the door behind her.

Heaving a sigh of relief, she dumped her pack on the floor and removed her other weapons. She dug through the pack and gathered up some food and a bottle of water, eating quickly. Picking up the bags of cash, she gave a wry chuckle. At one time, finding this would have been the stuff of dreams. She dumped the bags of cash out, shoving them into a pile. Now it was nothing more than an impromptu bed, the cash was totally worthless. The entire pile of cash wouldn't even buy you a bag of pretzels right now. She stretched out on the pile, clutching her pistol as she fell into an exhausted sleep.

A drop of water spattered on her face, abruptly waking her. She groaned and rubbed her aching head as she hauled herself up to sit. Condensation had collected inside the van, everything felt damp and droplets fell from the ceiling. She grabbed her pack and got out another bottle of water and a granola bar, as she collected her gear and weapons. She unlocked the truck's door and squeezed through, pausing to listen for a while for any sign of movement nearby. Satisfied that all was quiet, she carefully began to pick her way through the rubble and down the road.

It was disconcerting, being all alone with monsters all around. She hoped that she would be able to find others as she made her way down the road, but she saw no signs of any survivors. She would occasionally encounter lone zombies and once, when she came upon an overturned tour bus, a cluster of infected stumbling around. Every so often she would hear a gunshot in the distance, or the chatter of an assault rifle, so she knew there were still survivors in the area. Each time she would move hopefully toward the sound, but by the time she got there no one was to be found.

She followed the road signs along the road, heading toward some town called Riverside. She had heard other survivors talking about an evacuation site in Riverside, so she figured she might as well head there. She eventually came to the outskirts of the town and followed signs indicating a safe shelter. She saw a light coming through the barred window of a reinforced red door and quickly entered, barring the door and pushing some furniture up against it. Inside she found a battery powered lantern, a small propane cook stove and some cans of food. There were also sleeping bags and a little ammunition, as well as some med supplies, which she tucked into her pack. She set her belongings down and quickly got a meal together using the little stove to heat up some hash and beans. The walls were covered in notes from other survivors, which she read as she ate her meal. They were pretty depressing, notes meant for family members or loved ones that probably never even made it to the room. At least she knew she was on the right track, since there were directions toward the next safe-room down the road. She spread out a sleeping bag and lay down, her pistol in reach. The room seemed fairly secure, she felt confident that the zombies would not be able to get in. She quickly drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the hike and the stress of constantly being on the alert for attack.

She startled awake and quickly sat up in confusion, not sure what had woken her. She reached for her pistol and pain exploded in the back of her head. She crumpled face down to the floor, unconscious.

She came to, gagging and choking as a cloth was being shoved deep into her mouth and tied tightly. She struggled automatically, as she opened her eyes to find a dark shape hunched over her. She was lying on the bare cement in her underwear, her clothes had been stripped off her and her wrists were cuffed to a radiator on the floor. The shape smacked her sharply across the cheek. "Shut up, be still!" A man's voice hissed at her.

She stopped struggling as she stared up at the large man kneeling over her. Glancing around the room, she could see that there were others in the room, two hulking shapes asleep on the floor. She must have been out for quite a while, she thought, cursing to herself.

"Listen up, honey! I've got a proposition for you." The large man settled back on his heels as he whispered to her. "You be real nice to me and do what I want and I'll let you go. Sound good? Otherwise, me and my buddies will be taking turns with you in the morning. Those pussies decided they were too tired to play with you tonight, but I've still got some gas in the tank for a sweet thing like you. How 'bout it? Just nod if that sounds good to you."

She stared at him as her blood ran cold. Slowly, she nodded.

The man gave a low chuckle as he ran his hand down her chest and stomach. He fondled her breasts and then began to strip his clothes off, as he pushed her bra out of the way. He reached over to pull her underwear off, but she gave him a short and sharp crescent kick to the jaw and he fell face down on the floor.

This is great, just fucking great, she thought to herself. I'm now handcuffed to the floor next to the dirt bag I just knocked out. She struggled with the cuffs, finally managing to wrench one of her hands free, scraping the skin off in the process. Well, that was one advantage to having thick wrists and small hands, plus the idiots hadn't tightened them down enough. She found the keys inside the unconscious man's pocket and removed the cuffs. She handcuffed and gagged him as she considered her options. She recovered her clothes and weapons, getting her gear together quickly as she carefully watched the other men for any signs of waking. She found their weapons and unloaded them, piling their gear near the exit.

She went over and kicked one of the sleeping men awake. He opened his eyes to the barrel of a Desert Eagle leveled between them.

"Get up! Drag your assshole buddies out of here. Then get your shit and leave! If I ever see any of you again, I'll kill you on sight. Got it?"

The man nodded quickly, as he trembled in fear. He quickly woke the other sleeping man and together they dragged the unconscious man out of the safe-room. She allowed one of them to come in and get their gear. She slammed the door shut behind them and barred it, then tied the bar down with some wire she'd found in the room.

"You better watch your back, bitch! We'll catch up with you sooner or later, then it'll be payback time!" The unconscious man had awoken, and he was not happy.

"Maybe, but until then, I suggest you run." She replied as she stood inside, pistol in hand.

"What?!" The man stared at her in confusion.

"I said, run!" With a cold smile, she aimed the Eagle at the door and fired off several rounds into it. The Eagle was loud, it sounded like a small cannon. Within seconds, howling and screeching began to echo through the pitch darkness outside.

The men grabbed up their gear and weapons in a panic and fled into the night.

She went through the room, reinforcing the doors from the inside and piling everything she could find up against the door they just left from. Finally, she dragged the sleeping bag over next to the door and laid it up against the pile. If they returned and tried to get in, she would at least know it. She doubted they would return, since she doubted they had much longer to live. If only she could see their faces when they went to fire their weapons and realized they weren't loaded.


	9. Death Trap

"Oh fer chissakes… a goddamn tunnel. Terrific." Francis grumbled, as he contemplated the dark hole in front of them dourly.

"Don't be an ass, Francis!" Bill curtly retorted as he peered suspiciously around them. That tunnel could be serious trouble, if they got caught in there with a tank or a horde or, god forbid, both.

Zoey and Louis just exchanged wry smiles. Finally, everything seemed to have returned back to normal. Francis, bitching about any and every thing, while Bill strongly encouraged him to shut the hell up. They'd had to camp out for a few more days in the safe-room as Francis recovered from the infection from his encounter with CEDA, but now they were right back to trying to find an evac zone. While the CEDA encounter had been a terrible experience for Francis, it had settled the question of immunity once and for all. Clearly Francis was immune to the virus, and it seemed they must all be, since they had been in such close contact with him for days. At least that was one thing it seemed they didn't need to worry about anymore.

They worked their way through the tunnel until they came to a spot which was completely blocked. They found a stairwell nearby, which led them down into a machinery room. A few infected were inside, stumbling mindlessly around. Francis quickly killed a couple with a machete he had found, while Louis clubbed another one with a tire iron scavenged from an abandoned car.

Bill explored the room, finding a pipe bomb and a Molotov, but little else of any use. He led them up the stairs, which opened into a wooded area. Numerous zombies were milling around out there, so Bill armed the pipe bomb and threw it out. The zombies charged after it, entranced by the noise and light until it abruptly exploded in their drooling faces.

Just up the hill they could spot a safe-room in another building, so they headed over to it. Inside they found some ammo, pipe bombs and medical supplies, but that was it. Since it was still early afternoon, they decided to press on and try to travel a little further, rather than stay the night there.

They entered a drain system, shooting steadily at the infected clustered there.

"This way!" Bill directed them into one of the huge pipes. They descended through the pipes and rubble. Francis led them, efficiently decapitating zombies as he went. He'd gotten it down to a science, cleaving through their necks almost effortlessly.

"Yuck, gross!" Francis loudly commented as one of the infected lurched a bit as he struck, and the end result was a splatter of discolored brain matter down his front.

"Shut it, Francis! Do you want all of his buddies to hear you?" Bill scowled at him, then turned to peer further into the dark tunnel.

"Cram it, you old geezer…" Francis growled softly, in a more subdued tone. Zoey just shook her head, those two were just never going to stop their constant carping back and forth.

They followed the tunnel into a room equipped with floodgates, but found they couldn't continue through the tunnels without hitting a switch to allow them through a gated area.

"Fuckin' fantastic…" Francis groused as he checked it out. His low grumble echoed eerily through the tunnels. It was answered by faint sounds of shuffling and clattering.

Bill glared angrily over at him, eliciting an irritated scowl and a one-fingered salute from Francis. Bill huffed a breath out in annoyance, then turned his attention back to the situation. He motioned them to huddle around him and they gathered, Francis lingering on the outer edge.

"OK, people. This is likely to get bad quick. We'll need to activate the switch, then be ready for the horde with Molotovs and pipe bombs. If any make it through that, we pick 'em off as they try to climb up here. Francis, can you heave the first Molly into that tunnel over there?" He glanced over to the big man, who nodded as he knelt down, unscrewed the cap from the bottle of gas and fed a cloth wick down into it.

"Everybody ready?" As they all nodded back to him, Bill flipped the switch, activating the mechanism and an alarm. The howling started, building into a roar as infected began to pour forth from the tunnel openings and stream toward them. Bill nodded to Francis, who lit the Molotov and threw it perfectly to burst right in one of the tunnels. Bill armed his pipe bomb and tossed it down. The zombies scurried after it, clustering in a massive swarm around it until it detonated and sent body parts spraying through the air.

Francis grinned as he watched the bomb explode, the resulting spatter just never got old. He immediately turned his attention back to blasting the zombies climbing up the stairs with his shotgun, while the others picked off the infected scrambling across the floor below them.

The alarm quit ringing as the gates flew open. They charged across the metal bridge to the other side, continuing to fire on the zombies below. Finally there were no more, so they proceeded up some stairs and into another set of tunnels.

Francis led the way, cautiously peering into the darkness. He entered the tunnel and immediately an overwhelming sense of unease came over him, it was making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He inched forward carefully, straining his ears for the sounds of any special infected.

"Francis!" Bill hissed from behind him. "Move it along, we don't got all day!"

Francis shook his head in annoyance, but ignored his gut feeling and picked up the pace. He had just entered the intersection with another pipe when the tunnel exploded with an enormous roar and began to shake.

"TAAANK!" He bellowed out, just as the giant zombie swatted him down the tunnel, past his startled companions. The group turned and ran, past Francis lying crumpled in a pile of rubble, trying to make it back out to the more open gate area. Trying to fight a tank in a tunnel was not an appealing option. The tank galloped after them, his growls and snorts speeding them onward.

Bill turned to fire his M16 at the beast, which barely seemed to notice as the bullets ripped into its flesh. Bill was running backward when suddenly his back foot met nothing but air, and he fell backward out of the tunnel. He bounced briefly on the catwalk before rolling over the edge and down onto the lower level.

Louis and Zoey took positions on the nearby catwalk and began to fire on the tank, distracting it from attacking Bill, who was lying unmoving on the lower catwalk. The tank charged toward them, then suddently stopped and tore a chunk of the catwalk up and heaved it at them.

Louis yelped in surprise as the heavy steel hurtled toward them, then went silent as a piece of it hit him. Zoey dodged aside, then ran away, with the tank in hot pursuit. It looked like she was the only one still up. She fired her machine gun behind her, as she searched for an escape. She was suddenly batted through the air, tumbling into the water below. The tank leapt off the catwalk and towered over her, ready to hammer its giant fists into her. She screamed in desperation as she covered her head with her arms.

"EAT THIS, MOTHERFUCKER!" She looked up to see Francis jump down in front of the tank, then shove his shotgun in its mouth and pull the trigger. What little was left of the creature's brains scattered out the back of its skull as it fell heavily into the stagnant water and directly on top of Francis, burying him beneath it.

Once again he had definitely not fully considered the consequences of his actions, Francis thought to himself, as he was slammed to the ground and pinned underneath the tank, under water. He struggled to get free, but it was no good, the massive zombie could not be budged. His lungs bursting to breathe, he was finally forced to take in an agonized lungful of fetid water as he writhed in desperation and finally, mercifully, blacked out.

He came to convulsing and vomiting, his lungs in searing agony. Somebody rolled him to his side and pounded on his back, as he wheezed and more water poured from his nose. He rolled to his knees and pressed his forehead against the floor as another bout of vomiting coursed through him.

"Ya done? Think you'll live?" A hand brushed briefly across his head and patted his back. He rolled to his back as he gasped for breath, his throat raw. He looked up to see Bill bending down to peer at him, while Louis hunched over something on the floor nearby. Something wearing a red track jacket. Shit! Zoey! He groaned and lurched up to his knees and crawled over to her.

Her face was paper white and she was unconscious. Francis looked at Louis, his face ashen.

"She'll be ok, she just fainted. Thought you were dead and went out like a light. Of course, it couldn't have been fun watching you struggle and drown, man. You scared the shit out of me, too!" Louis shook his head as he contemplated Francis. Louis was convinced that the man might be truly indestructible, some sort of real life Terminator.

Francis groaned and sank back to the ground. All that mattered to him right now was that she was ok. Something started to sting his eyes, and he realized there was blood running into them. He reached up to his head and felt a deep cut high on his forehead. A hand pulled his away and started to blot the blood off.

"That'll leave a mark, but don't worry, I think it might actually improve your looks." Bill grinned at him as he patched the gash up with some bandages. Francis just rolled his eyes and sat up once Bill was finished. Bill gave him a quick once over, looking for other cuts, but he seemed otherwise ok. That had been a narrow escape, Bill knew. He'd seen Francis jump in front of the tank to protect Zoey and had seen the tank pin him under water. He hopped and hobbled his way over to help, but it was really Louis who had saved the day. He had grabbed a loose piece of rebar and using that as a lever had managed to pry the tank up enough to allow Bill to drag Francis' limp body free. He'd dragged him out of the water and immediately begun CPR. Bill grimaced as he vowed to himself that he would never, under any circumstances, admit to giving Francis mouth-to-mouth. He'd never hear the goddamned end of it if he did, he knew that much, plus Francis might feel the need to beat him to death. He felt pretty sure that Francis would have preferred death, rather than mouth-to-mouth with him, given a choice. Well, he didn't need to ever know, Bill planned on taking that one to his grave.

Zoey stirred and woke up, sitting to stare around her. She spotted Francis sitting up and threw herself on him, knocking him flat on his back, sobbing as she hugged him.

"Whoa, whoa! Relax, everything's all right…" He awkwardly held her, not sure what he should be doing with his hands, finally settling for gently patting her back. She clung to him until her sobbing finally wound down, burying her face in his neck. "Hey, nothing to cry about, ok? Everybody's fine, all right?" He squirmed under her, uncomfortable, her on top of him seemed really awkward with Bill and Louis standing right there. He looked up to see Bill looking at him, brow arched quizzically, while Louis stood there trying not to giggle. Francis frowned as he firmly lifted Zoey off of him and set her down to the side as he sat up. She wiped her arm across her face, glared at him and punched him as hard as she could in the jaw.

He yelped in surprise. "What the hell was that for?" He gazed at her in astonishment as he held his bruised jaw.

"That's for being such a stupid jerk! Who shoots a tank and lets it fall on them, huh? And lets everybody think he's dead, when he's not? It's so…so…so…fucking inconsiderate! That's what you are, a fucking inconsiderate, stupid jerk!" She jumped to her feet and stalked off.

Francis stared after her, at a complete loss for words. Both Bill and Louis were openly laughing at the whole thing. Francis glowered at them as he climbed back to his feet. Bad enough to have dropped a tank on himself, swallowed nearly half the putrid water on the floor and puked it all back up in front of everyone, now he had to be the group's laughingstock. Well, fuck them, he thought to himself, next time I'll just save my ass and let them deal with the shit on their own. He cast a furious glance back at them as he found his shotgun and proceeded to dry it out and reload it.

Bill gathered them back together and they set off through the tunnels once more. Francis was in the lead, walking ahead of them, positively rigid with anger and radiating a palpable wall of menace about him. Bill followed with Zoey, who was equally sulky and angry, while the bemused Louis tailed behind. They came out of the tunnels next to a building, where they spotted another safe-room sign. They quickly made their way past the warehouse. Francis viciously decapitated several zombies, striking them so violently their heads flew through the air a good ten feet. They climbed through a window and into the safe-room, a converted rail car.

Bill decided to call it a night. They had taken a serious whipping from the tank and were all tired and nursing various injuries. There was no opposition from the ranks, they were numb with exhaustion and pain.

Francis threw his pack and weapons on the ground, frowning at the others. He was still pretty steamed about what had just happened. He saved her, and what does he get for it?! A punch in the jaw and Bill and Louis openly snickering at him. He threw himself down on the floor, stewing over it for a while. His beaten and tired body soon took over, shutting down his angry brain as he drifted off, snoring stentoriously.

Bill watched as the clearly furious Francis bedded down and eventually fell asleep. He looked over at Zoey, who had been fidgeting away and glancing guiltily toward Francis. He just sighed and gave her a wry grin.

"Hey, kid. Go to sleep. Don't worry about it, Francis will have forgotten everything and cooled off by tomorrow." Bill sat on a bench and fired up a cigarette, sucking the smoke in as he closed his eyes and savored it. He opened his eyes and gazed at her with a more serious expression. "Best if you leave him alone, Zoey. He is what he is, and you're not going to change that. He may kill himself trying to protect you, but he ain't boyfriend material as much as you want to romanticize that, all right? He's not the knight in shining armor you may think he is."

Zoey stared at the ground, frowning. Now she felt even more idiotic, with Bill thinking she had eyes for Francis. Who would ever want that gigantic dumbass as a boyfriend? She threw herself down on the bedding with a huff of disgust at herself. Bill was right, anyway it was a total cliché, helpless woman throws herself on buff hero and they live happily ever after. There was sure as shit no happily ever after here, she thought to herself as she dropped off to sleep.


	10. Train Wreck

Bill was dead wrong. The next morning dawned cold and gray, rain misting down in damp clouds. That chill was nothing compared to the reception they were all getting from Francis this morning. He had clearly not forgotten about yesterday at all and had withdrawn completely, behaving even cooler toward them than when they had first met him. Totally silent, he sat as far away from them as he could as they ate some snacks from their packs. Even when directly addressed, he just contemplated them coolly without responding.

Bill shook his head in annoyance. He wished he could take back all the times he wished that Francis would just shut up forever. He would much rather listen to his nonstop griping than this heavy, tense silence. It was affecting everyone's morale, making them all edgy and short with each other.

They silently gathered their gear and prepared to leave. Bill unbarred and opened the door, gesturing for Francis to move out first. He glared back at him coldly, then leveled a sneer at Bill before roughly shoving past him. Bill merely rolled his eyes and gestured for the others to follow.

They found themselves in a train yard filled with abandoned rail cars and a few outbuildings. Francis moved ahead of them into the yard, stopping to kill zombies with his machete every now and again. Bill took a quick detour into a small building, emerging with a pipe bomb and a Molotov. He handed the Molotov to Louis and kept the pipe bomb for himself. He noticed that Francis was nowhere in sight and gave a puzzled glance to Zoey, who just sighed and pointed far up ahead. Francis waited in the shadows, leaning against a shed.

Bill frowned and cursed. He was going to get himself killed if he kept going too far ahead. He moved forward, determined to have a no nonsense chat with the stubborn biker.

Francis, however, was having none of it. As soon as Bill moved within shouting distance of him, the big man shoved away from the shed and continued forward at a fast clip, not allowing Bill to close the distance.

"Francis!" Bill hissed sharply, as he attempted to catch up to him. The big man strode rapidly along, giving no indication that he heard him. For a moment, Bill angrily contemplated winging the big idiot. He was just getting ready to break into a jog in order to catch up to him when he felt something grab him, wrapping tightly around his chest and neck. He tried to yell, but only managed an anguished croak as the smoker's tongue constricted him tightly. It dragged him rapidly back toward some evergreens, as Louis and Zoey pursued. They were reluctant to fire until they could see the target.

Unfortunately, the smoker dragged him right into one of the fat, puking zombies which spewed the contents of its stomach all over the three of them. Bill struggled in the smoker's grip, as it beat him with its fists. Zoey and Louis were blinded, unable to help him or shoot the smoker. Louis blindly struck out with the tire iron, and the boomer exploded, covering them in another gush of bile.

The howling and screeching of a horde could now be heard, as they rushed in a frenzy toward the bile-covered survivors. Louis and Zoey were quickly engulfed and separated, soon they were fighting for their lives. Zoey's pistol shots rang out sharply, as Louis continued to flail about with the tire iron.

Bill's vision began to fade as the breath was crushed out of him. He thought he heard the loud blast of a shotgun, but he wasn't sure about anything as his ears were already ringing badly. He felt himself hit the ground, then nothing more.

He awoke to the sound of howling, accompanied by pained grunts. He gave one of his own as a heavy boot stomped on his arm. He looked up to see Francis standing over him, grimly swinging his machete as he cut down the zombies clutching and beating on him. One huge zombie dressed in mangled mechanic's overalls smashed a meaty fist into Francis' face, resulting in a gushing nosebleed. Francis clubbed the thing back with the haft of the machete, before using the blade to cleave its head from its neck.

Bill watched limply from the ground as Francis finished off the last of the mob and sunk to his knees, exhausted and gasping for breath. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked around, spotting Bill. He lurched back to his feet and held his hand out to help Bill up. Bill grasped it and pulled himself back to his feet.

Francis turned, finding Louis helping Zoey back to her feet. He looked down as he wiped away the blood streaming down from his nose. He glanced back up toward them. He felt bad about this, he had gotten pretty far away before he even noticed they were in trouble, so he'd been a little late to the party. He was just getting ready to offer some kind of apology when he was interrupted.

"Nice of you to show up!" Zoey furiously confronted him, shoving him hard in the chest. "This is all YOUR fault, in case you were wondering!" She gestured at the injuries that Bill and Louis had just started examining.

His apology forgotten, he glared back angrily as he retorted. "I'm sorry… what?! How the fuck is this MY fault, anyway? I guess I must've misheard you, didn't you mean to say…Thank you, Francis, for coming back to save our sorry asses again?"

Her eyes narrowed as she hissed back at him. "No…what I really meant to say was this…Francis, go fuck yourself. Sideways, you asshole!" She turned and stomped over to Bill and Louis, casting furious looks back at him.

Francis grabbed up his shotgun and loaded it, then picked up his pack and stalked off, in a rage. That was it, as far as he was concerned. The hell with this shit, he thought as he stomped off, fuming to himself. Nothing was worth this bullshit, he was better off by himself. He would either go it alone or find another group that would at least appreciate him a little. He continued on, ignoring Louis and Bill as they called to him to come back.

He crossed the train yard and went up some stairs and past several rooms. He found a pile of ammo in one of the rooms, and stocked up on shotgun shells. He walked across the tops of a couple of trains to get down to a nearby road. Heavy woods bordered the road, just perfect for special infected to ambush from. He walked carefully along the road, alert for any noises coming from the woods. He passed a bus blocking the roadway and dispatched several infected leaning mindlessly against it.

Up ahead he could just see some lights coming from a building, so he headed that way. As he neared, he could see that it was an old farmhouse. A really creepy looking old farmhouse, but he decided to check inside anyway. The military vehicles abandoned nearby suggested that maybe the army had held out there for a while. He stepped up onto the porch and peered inside.

He was just about to enter when he heard a strange grunting, almost like a deep guttural voice talking, along with a peculiar shuffling noise. He paused in the doorway as he tried to determine the location of the sounds. Suddenly, a huge shape charged out from the dark recesses of a room. It bellowed like a bull as it dashed toward him. He leapt to the side, but the huge zombie smashed into his shoulder, he was knocked backward off the porch, slamming the back of his head as he slid through the dirt. He lay there stunned for a moment, but then the creature returned, trying to pummel him with a massive arm. He yanked his shotgun up and blasted it point blank. It took several shots to drop the thing. He crawled to his knees and used the shotgun to lever himself back up to his feet. He staggered drunkenly into the house, black spots dancing in front of his eyes, dangerously close to blacking out. He stumbled into the small bathroom and slammed it shut behind him, sliding down with his back against it as he slumped to the floor and passed out.

He drifted back into consciousness to something cool on the back of his head, and to Zoey's angry voice.

"Serves him right, colossal dumbass! I wonder if it managed to knock some sense into his puny brain!" She gave a snort of derision.

"Come on, Zoey! Don't be like that, ok? He's paid for his stupidity, just let it go, all right?" Louis' voice sounded off near him. "We all make mistakes. Let's not make this any worse than it already is, ok?"

"That's right, kid. Leave it alone. Francis just got a little extra Francisy, that's all. He's got a temper, he probably just needed some time to cool off. I can't believe I'm saying this, but cut him some slack. I've had enough of this petty arguing. It's what led to this crap to begin with. Anyway, the way I see it, he did us all a huge favor. If that gigantic zombie out there had bashed into one of us, we'd probably be looking at something a helluva lot more serious than a concussion. We're lucky it went for him and didn't hurt him badly and that he managed to kill it. He may be an ass, but he's also a major asset to the team." Bill said as he knelt beside him. Bill moved Francis' head slightly to get a better look at the injury.

Francis gasped at the shooting pain and waves of nausea just that small motion caused. He opened his eyes, then waited for everything to settle back into focus. He was lying on the couch in the living room, with Bill kneeling next to him and Louis hovering nearby. He groaned as he brought his hand up to touch his head, which felt like it had split in two.

"Hey, welcome back." Bill gave a small smile. "Look here. How many fingers am I holding up?"

Francis squinted, trying to make out how many blurred fingers Bill was holding up. "Three?" He guessed, closing his eyes again, trying to stop the room from swimming around in his vision.

Bill put down the two fingers he'd been holding up and sighed. "OK, then. Definitely a concussion. We can't stay here, though. Think you can walk?"

"Yeah, probably. I've had worse." He pushed himself up to sit, with Bill helping him. He took a moment to steady himself then Louis and Bill helped haul him to his feet. He swayed a bit unsteadily, so Louis ducked under his arm to help support him.

"You're good, man. I've got ya." Louis assured him, as he gingerly helped him take a few small steps forward.

Francis set his jaw, trying to ignore the intense pain radiating through his skull. "Yeah, thanks man. Let's go."

Bill nodded and scooped up Francis shotgun, while Zoey grabbed up his small pack. They left the farmhouse and made their way slowly down the road toward what looked like a cemetery gate. They went through the gate and up a path through the cemetery, toward a church with a light on.

A soft sobbing cut through the air and they froze, fear flittering across their faces. They had all heard that sob before and knew exactly what it was, a witch. Bill signaled them all to hold up, as he cautiously crept forward.

He spotted her, an emaciated creature with tattered clothing and stringy hair, hunched over sobbing and rocking, over near some gravestones. He quietly crept back toward the others. "Follow me, turn all your lights out!" He whispered quietly to them, as he led them past the witch, keeping as much distance away from it as he could. They entered a large room containing a piano and were thrilled to see a safe-room there.

Their elation was short lived, as they soon discovered the safe-room was already occupied and the occupant had no intention of letting them in. The guy also sounded like his elevator didn't quite go to the top.

"No! Nobody gets in! Better safe than sorry!" A high, quavering voice informed them.

"Come on! Have a heart, we've got a helpless old man with us!" Francis yelled back, trying to play the sympathy card.

"Hey!" Bill looked sharply at him. Helpless, indeed!

"No! Nobody gets in! Dinnertime! Come and get it! Ding Dong, Ding Dong!" The man screeched back at them, as he began to ring the church's bell. The howling and wailing of a horde began to build outside.

"Shit! Everybody but us is either a zombie or an asshole! When we get in there, I'm gonna shove that bell right up his ass!" Francis growled as he grabbed all the shotgun ammo and set it next to him as he knelt on the floor just in front of Zoey, who had perched herself on a table with her rifle. He was still seeing double, but with the scatter gun it wouldn't matter much, as long as everybody stayed behind him.

Bill looked over his crew, nodding in satisfaction as they automatically set up lines of fire, ensuring a crossfire on the major approaches. He gave a worried glance to Francis, hoping the big man would be able to hold out in his injured state. He would try to keep fairly close to him in case he needed help.

The zombies howled and screamed, agitated into a killing frenzy by the loud bell. They streamed at them through the large church windows and a side entrance, but they were able to cover those fairly well and none of the creatures made it close enough to hurt anybody. Suddenly, zombies started to pour through the side windows and the roof and they began to get overwhelmed.

Francis lurched to his feet, bracing his back against the wall, as he began using the machete to cut through the engulfing horde. Zoey stood above him on the table, firing almost continuously into the zombies pouring into the room. Bill was perched on a pile of furniture in the corner, it gave him a great position for firing down into the infected in the room. Louis had resorted to his tire iron and was darting about, trying to keep the infected off of Zoey and Francis as best he could.

Abruptly, a hideous little zombie leapt onto Louis' back, jerking him into the throng of zombies and scratching at him. Louis yelled in alarm as he struggled to get the thing off of him. Bill was forced to jump down and run after him, trying to dislodge the zombie and kill it. He finally succeeded in knocking it off and swiftly shot and killed it.

Out of the darkness, a large shape charged, bowling zombies out of its way until it smashed into Francis, propelling him backward into a wall. It grasped his limp body and began lifting and smashing him into the ground. Zoey quickly shot the charging zombie, but not before it managed to incapacitate Francis, who lay in a heap on the ground. They were all too busy fighting to go help him, so he lay on the ground as dead infected began to pile up around him.

The bell finally stopped ringing and the horde began to dwindle. They finished off the last of them and rushed over to help Francis. He was out cold, his face drawn and pale, blood trickling from his mouth.

Bill heard the sound of the safe-room door being unbarred and swiftly went over and opened it. Crouched just inside the door was a hunter, he shot it before it managed to spring on him. Kicking it out of the safe-room, he quickly brought in their gear and with Louis and Zoey's help, managed to drag Francis inside. Bill quickly bolted the door and they all heaved a sigh of relief. They had made it to safety, just barely, one more time.

They were unable to awaken Francis, so they got some bedding from the upstairs loft and set it up for him on the floor, laying him carefully on his side. They had no sooner finished that when he went into convulsions. Bill knelt down to help steady him, and rolled him back to his side when they subsided. He flicked his flashlight in his eyes, checking the pupils. At least they were both the same size, Bill thought to himself. This was bad. A serious concussion followed by what Bill could only describe as a severe full body smashing. With a low moan, Francis began to vomit, followed by racking dry heaves. He finally stopped, tossing and groaning fitfully. Bill sighed as he grabbed some cleaning supplies from the shelves in the room to clean up the mess. He hoped the main problem was just a severe concussion and nothing more serious, otherwise Francis stood little chance of recovering.

Zoey and Louis looked on, worried. Zoey blinked back tears, she felt really badly about everything that happened today and the things she'd said to him. Now he was badly hurt and she felt it was partly her fault.

Bill stood back up after applying a cold washcloth to the back of the head and pulling a blanket over the unconscious biker. "Come on, let's get upstairs and get some grub together, then we can set the watch and get some shut eye." He led them up the ladder, where they found a small propane stove and some canned food. They ate a quick meal and Louis and Zoey got ready to bed down.

Bill took the first watch shift, since he didn't feel sleepy at all and wanted to keep a close eye on Francis. He went back down the ladder and set up a folding chair, lighting one of his last cigarettes as he watched over the stricken man. At one point Francis sat up, unsteady and swaying, and looked around blankly before falling back to the bedding and beginning to snore softly. Bill stayed up with him, not bothering to wake the others. He figured they would most likely have to stay there for another day, so there would be plenty of time for him to rest.


	11. Grave Doubts

Zoey glanced nervously down at Francis. He was still out and unresponsive to being shaken or shouted at. It was almost noon and still he hadn't really stirred. Bill had gone off to bed a while ago, leaving her and Louis to clean weapons and get a meal together.

Louis climbed down the ladder and pulled up a chair. "Anything?" He asked as he bent down to study Francis' face. He looked pale, his face drawn in a grimace of pain even in his unconscious state.

She shook her head sadly and sighed. "Is it my imagination, or does he have, like, the worst luck ever? Whenever one of us really takes a pasting or gets seriously screwed up, it always seems to be him."

Louis chuckled. "Well, he does have the bad habit of throwing himself in front of tanks and generally in harms way trying to protect YOU. That's a good part of why he always seems to be getting his ass handed to him."

She sighed again as she balled up a fist and whacked herself in the forehead several times. "I know, I know! And look at how I repaid him for it! I'm such an ungrateful ass, I can't believe I said that stuff to him. He's got to get better, 'cause I really need to say I'm sorry for all that. I'm such a jerk!" She huddled down into the chair, shrinking into a ball.

"Don't beat yourself up about it, you'll have your chance to apologize. He's a tough bastard and isn't going to go down this easy, all right? Cheer up, I just know he's going to be just fine!" Louis beamed a genuine smile at her and reached over to pat her on the arm. She returned his smile with a tentative one of her own.

They sat for a while, just quietly chatting. Suddenly Francis began to stir.

He clutched his head with both hands and groaned. "Oh, fuck. For Chrissakes, somebody just kill me now!" He began to moan and rock slightly as he tried to deal with the pain from a massive headache.

"Francis!" Zoey yelled to him, but he didn't respond to her. She knelt next to him and touched his arm, he jumped in surprise, whipping around to stare at her. "Hey, how are you feeling? I can get you some pain meds…"

He just stared at her without answering, a look of puzzled bewilderment on his face.

Louis crouched down behind him, perplexed. "Hey man, what's wrong? Are you ok?" Francis didn't even look at him, so he reached out and touched his arm. Francis quickly turned his way with a look of surprise.

Louis spoke louder. "I said, are you ok?!"

Francis just stared at him, as a look of panic spread across his face. "I can't hear you! Shit, I can't hear me! What the fuck?!" He began to feel his ears and tap his palms on them.

"Oh, shit! Lemme get Bill! Sit tight!" Louis held his palm out to Francis in a stay motion and then held up a finger to indicate it would just be a second. Francis nodded absently as he continued to crack his jaw and tap his ears in an attempt to hear something.

Zoey burst into tears, sobbing. "I'm sorry, Francis. I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!" She folded her head onto her knees as she cried.

Francis glanced over to see Zoey crying, tears streaming down her face. He reached over to touch her and shook his head. "Stop crying, Zoe. Not your fault, ok?" She just shook her head vigorously and continued crying.

Bill and Louis climbed back down the ladder. Bill walked up behind Francis and put his hand on his shoulder, causing him to whip around in surprise. Francis growled in annoyance. "Shit! Quit _doin_' that!"

Bill made the ok signal and held up a finger to indicate that he needed a second. He searched the nearby desk and found a pad of paper and a pen. He wrote down: "Tell me how you are feeling. Bad headache? Any feeling of pressure? Anything else?" He pushed the pad over to Francis.

He read it slowly squinting at the paper, then nodded. "An unbelievably bad headache, dizziness and a very weird feeling of pressure, head feels really heavy and stuffy. It hurts to even move my eyes around." He gingerly massaged his temple, wincing in pain. "Please tell me we have pain meds, because I need 'em bad!"

Bill took the pad back and wrote: "Let me take a quick look in your ears w/ flashlight." He pushed the pad over to Francis to read. He shrugged and nodded and held still, wincing as Bill examined each ear. Bill could now see that blood had been leaking out of the ears, they just hadn't noticed it since Francis was completely smeared in blood and gore and the small amount of blood just hadn't caught their attention.

Bill sighed and cursed softly. It was almost certainly a skull fracture, which could be a big problem. He hoped it was a minor fracture and that the deafness would resolve quickly, they would just have to wait and see.

Francis groaned again as he clutched his head. "For chrissakes, give me something for this or pistol whip me unconscious! I don't care which, just do it quick!"

Bill patted him on the shoulder and held up a finger to indicate he'd be back in one second. He climbed up into the loft and rooted through the med supplies. Fortunately, they did have some fairly heavy duty pain meds, as well as some other drugs that might help. He returned down the ladder and grabbed the paper and pen and wrote: "You need to rest and stay still. Take the pain meds now and try to eat and drink something. If you have trouble resting, we've got tranquilizers. DO NOT GET UP, we will get you what you need. It's important that you keep as still as possible, you have a skull fracture." He shoved the pad over to Francis.

Francis read it, his brow furrowed. He looked up at Bill, nodded and sighed. He held his hand out for the pills, dry swallowing them quickly. Bill gave him some granola bars and water, which he dutifully ate and drank. He then lay back down, throwing his arm across his eyes. He fell almost immediately asleep as the pain meds began to take effect.

"What's happening, Bill? Why can't he hear us?" Zoey looked anxiously at Bill as she wiped her face dry on her sleeve.

"Pretty sure he's got a skull fracture. Hopefully it's just pressure and swelling that is causing the deafness, but it's possible that it's permanent. I'm not gonna tell him that, but it's something you should know." He glanced over at Francis, it felt a bit weird saying that with him right there, but there was certainly no chance he would hear it.

She gasped in alarm. "Oh my god, I did this to him! How is somebody who's deaf going to make it through this…this…complete shit storm?" She swept her arm out, and let if fall back to her side in despair.

"Come on, kid. Quit blaming yourself! Francis is a big boy, he made his own decisions, ok? He'll be all right. We'll stick together and adapt, we'll look out for him. The best thing you can do right now is to act positive and try to keep his spirits up, all right?" Bill gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. In his opinion, Zoey needed to buck up and get off her guilt trip, and the sooner the better. "We're gonna have to camp out here for at least 2-3 days, until he's able to travel again. Louis, we should go scavenge in the town. Zoey, you know the drill. Keep an eye on Francis, keep him as quiet as possible. We've got tranquilizers if he needs them, I'll show you which ones and how much to give. All right? The most important thing is that he stays still and gives it a chance to start healing. Do NOT let him up and about until I say so. If he falls or sustains another blow to the head right now, it could very well be fatal."

She nodded and followed Bill up the ladder. He put her in charge of the meds, writing down the dosage and frequency that she could give the drugs. Then he and Louis got their gear together and departed, climbing out of a window and onto a scaffold, then down a ladder to head into the town.

Zoey barred the door shut behind them, then grabbed some bedding and brought it downstairs. She was exhausted and wanted to rest, but she wanted to be nearby if Francis needed anything. She spread the bedding next to his in the small room and lay down. She fell quickly asleep as she absently stared at Francis, watching his steady breathing.

She awoke groggily to somebody shaking her urgently. Francis was propped up on an elbow, looking at her with concern.

"What? What's wrong? Do you need more meds?" She rubbed her eyes, struggling to wake up.

He just looked at her and shrugged, he wasn't sure what she had just said. "Where's Bill and Louis? Are they upstairs? It's late, already dark out…"

She looked around at the darkened room, lit dimly by battery-powered lamps. She scrambled up the stairs and looked through the door. It was pitch dark out and there was no sign of Louis or Bill, they must still be out there. Shit! Something had to be wrong, they wouldn't stay out past dark to scavenge!

She made her way back down the ladder, talking as she descended. "They're not up there! Something is wrong, Francis! What do we do now?" She turned toward him, as he looked up at her expectantly. Smacking her palm on her forehead, she looked about for the writing pad. She quickly wrote: "Bill and Louis not back yet. Something wrong. What should we do?" She pushed the pad over to him.

He read it quickly, cursing under his breath. He looked up as he set the pad aside. "We wait 'til mornin' and then go look for 'em. They're probably in trouble."

She shook her head and frowned, then wrote: "No! Bill said you need to stay still. He said if you aggravate the skull fracture it could be fatal!"

He read it and just shrugged and shook his head. "Well, it doesn't look like there's much choice, does it? Anyway, gimme a hand up, I need to use the john."

She shook her head again and wrote: "You're supposed to stay still!"

He looked at it and rolled his eyes at her. "Well, I gotta go! Are you gonna help me or not?! My teeth are floatin' here!" He held out an arm for her to grasp.

With a sigh of frustration, she grabbed hold and tried to help him up. It was like a mouse trying to hoist up an elephant, she wasn't able to do much. He ended up crawling over to the metal desk and using that to haul himself up. He swayed uncertainly on his feet, then staggered over to the bathroom, using the wall to help keep his balance. He shut the door as she waited outside anxiously. After a while she heard a loud thump, followed by some cursing.

"Francis? Are you ok in there?" She listened for a response, before slapping herself again on the forehead. How in the heck was he supposed to hear her? Duh!

She waited a while longer, as scuffling noises and curses erupted from the bathroom, then finally went to the door and opened it timidly. "Can I help?"

He was crumpled on the floor, trying to use the wall to push himself back to his feet. It wasn't working and he finally just gave up and growled. "Nevermind, I'll just crawl back. Pretend it's just another Saturday night…" He crawled back to his bedding and wearily threw himself down on it. "Goddammit, this sucks!" He heaved a tired sigh. "Could you get me something to eat and drink and another round of pain meds, please?"

She gave him the ok sign and headed back up the ladder. She heated a can of soup and brought a box of crackers to go with it and a full water bottle. She grabbed the pain meds and the tranquilizers and took them down as well. He'd already dozed off again, so she shook him awake and they ate the soup and crackers. She gave him the pain meds and cleaned up after the meal. By the time she was finished, he was already sound asleep again. It didn't look like the tranquilizers would be needed after all. At least not by him. She felt so worked up about Bill and Louis that she briefly considered it, before deciding it was definitely not a good idea when she might be needed to assist Francis. With a sigh she bedded back down next to him, tossing and turning until, much later, she finally settled into a restless sleep.

Bill and Louis trudged along through the trashed streets, poking their heads hopefully into the buildings, only to find nothing of any use. They'd already crossed through several blocks and come up empty. It was clear that many survivors had made their way through the town, it was stripped completely bare of anything useful.

"I don't know, Bill. This place has been cleaned out. How far should we go before giving up on it?" Louis looked anxiously over at Bill.

Bill looked back at him grimly, then glanced at his watch. "Let's keep going for another hour, that should give us enough time to get back before it gets too dark. Come on, let's check over here." He scrambled up a van and made his way up to a roof and a second floor entrance. There were two zombies up there and he killed them quietly with the machete he'd borrowed from Francis. They entered into an office area and began to go through the desks, anxious to find any scrap of food. They gathered back together after the search and looked at the sad results of their search, a badly squashed packet of cookies and a single serving plastic bowl containing some cereal. Louis stuffed it in his nearly empty bag as they climbed through a window and down to a street. They ranged along the street, peering through windows, but it didn't look promising.

"Let's lower that forklift and climb across to the other side of the street." Louis suggested, pointing to a makeshift ramp supported in the air by a forklift.

Bill glanced around, the street looked deserted, but the noise from that forklift might bring any infected in earshot running. With a resigned sigh, Bill nodded. "Guess there's no choice, it's either that or go back empty handed. Let's do it. As soon as it's down run like hell across there." Bill pressed a switch, lowering the lift, which began beeping an alarm. "Dammit!" Bill tried to shut off the alarm, but couldn't find a switch for that.

Together, Bill and Louis bolted up the ramp and along it, jumping off the end to the street below. A muted roaring and howling was beginning to build through the streets and Louis looked at Bill in alarm.

"That's a lot of zombies, Bill! Now what?" Louis looked around him in a panic.

"Get in there!" Bill pointed toward a nearby store front, it looked like a former deli. They jumped in and began pushing shelves against the windows, trying to block them up. Zombies began to stream into the street from all directions, howling and screaming as they searched for the source of the noise. They soon located the two men and began trying to force their way into the store. Bill and Louis fired their weapons until they were out of ammo, then switched to melee weapons.

"Bill! There's too many! I can't keep this up!" Louis gasped out as he wiped the sweat dripping down his face.

Bill nodded grimly. "On the count of three, make a break for the back room! One…two…three! They both scrambled for the backroom, slamming the flimsy door shut behind them. The door shuddered as the zombies on the other side threw themselves against it and tried to pound it down. They looked desperately around for some escape. As luck would have it, they'd jumped into a room with no exit. They looked around wildly for some way out.

"In there!" Bill pointed to a metal walk-in refrigerator. They dove inside as the door to the room began to splinter and pull away from its hinges. They slammed the metal door shut and secured it with a bolt so that it could not be opened. Bill motioned for Louis to be silent, and they both quietly sat and waited to see what would happen. The zombies banged on the door for a while, then seemed to lose interest. They did not dare make a noise or go out there, they needed to wait for the horde to disperse. Bill glanced at his watch, it looked like this was right where they would be spending the night, it was already too late for them to attempt to make it back to the safe-room. They split the pack of cookies between them and lay down on the hard floor, eventually falling asleep.

Zoey woke slowly, feeling warm and comfortable, for a change. She suddenly realized that there was a large arm wrapped around her, and a warm body spooned up against her back. She sat up quickly, her face flushing. She was just about to start yelling at him for crawling into her bedding when she realized that, for one, he wouldn't hear her and for another, it appeared as if she had been the one to crawl over to him. She swiftly slid back over to her own bedding, blushing furiously. Thank god he was still asleep, she thought. If he knew about this, he would never let her hear the end of it.

She straightened herself up and climbed upstairs. It looked like breakfast would consist of the last of the food, a large can of beets. She made a face as she heated it up over the hotplate, not really her idea of breakfast. She brought it downstairs, then pushed at Francis with her foot to wake him. After several sharp pokes he finally began to stir and sat up, groaning as he rubbed his hand over his head.

"Eat!" She offered the bowl of beets to him and he looked at them, then looked back at her dubiously.

"Are you fuckin' serious? Is that all there is?" Francis gazed back into the bowl in disbelief.

She nodded and he gave a disgusted snort. "No thanks, pass." He shoved the bowl back at her, but she glared at him and pushed it back. Pointing to it emphatically, she stuck her hands on her hips and frowned at him. He shook his head, scowling at the beets.

She took the paper pad and wrote in big letters: "EAT! NO PAIN MEDS UNTIL U EAT!" She held it up for him to read.

He frowned and cursed vehemently. "Has anyone ever told you you're meaner than a fuckin' snake in the mornin'?" She frowned and jabbed her finger several times at the pad of paper. "All right! All right! Don't get your panties in a bunch! I'll eat half if you'll eat half, ok?"

She nodded in agreement as he quickly choked the beets down in resignation, clearly trying to swallow them without actually tasting them. Grimacing, he shoved the remainder of the beets at her and held out his hand, waiting for some pills. She gave him his pills and picked up the plate of beets, rapidly gulping them down with her eyes shut. She shuddered in distaste as she swallowed them down. Those things gave her the heebie-jeebies, but they might be the only food they got for a good while.

She looked back up to see him grinning at her and holding something in his hand.

"Think this is yours, Princess…definitely not my style." He held out her hair scrunchie, which he had just found in his bedding. She blushed and reached out to pluck it out of his hand. "You're welcome. And you're more than welcome for the snuggling, too. Anytime, sweetheart." He shot her a wolfish grin as she blushed and stomped off into the bathroom, slamming it shut behind her.

He just laughed, he couldn't help teasing her a little. It was funny to see her so embarrassed and confused. He knew he should probably tell her what really happened, but it was just funny to have her thinking she'd crawled into his bed. He'd woken up last night to find her thrashing and screaming in what looked like one hell of a nightmare. He couldn't hear her, of course, but it looked like she was screaming her lungs out. He had picked her up and held her to calm her, folding his arms around her as she whimpered and clutched at him. He'd meant to set her back in her spot, but he fell asleep as he waited for the nightmare to subside. He grinned to himself as he thought of ways to get a little more amusement mileage out of it.

She finished up in the bathroom and emerged, her cheeks still red. She grabbed the pad of paper and wrote: "I'll get the gear together. Do u need help getting ready?"

He read the note and shook his head. He was feeling much more stable today and less dizzy. At least he was able to get himself off the floor, that was a big step forward, he thought to himself wryly. He got up and carefully shuffled into the bathroom. After he was done, he cautiously hauled himself up the ladder. His balance was definitely way off, but he figured he should be ok if he was careful and took it slow.

Zoey shouldered the pack containing what little gear and ammo they had left and handed him his shotgun. He was a bit perturbed to discover that someone had taken his machete. She helped him out through the window and they made their way down the ladder and headed into the town.

They moved along through the streets, hoping to come across some sign of Bill and Louis. They spotted a few casings from an M16 and figured that at least they had passed this way. Zoey walked slightly in front of him as he rested his hand on her shoulder, it seemed to help his equilibrium. It was slow going, but at least they had not encountered any infected yet. Either Bill and Louis had eliminated them, or they had all swarmed off someplace else. They climbed through an office building, spotting a ramp to cross over to another street. They took it very slow, Francis was worried he might stumble or trip and fall right off into the street below. He hated heights and by the time they got to the other side he was dripping with sweat and shaking. They got off the ramp and started to cross the street, when Zoey suddenly heard a coughing cry, which seemed to be coming from somewhere on a nearby roof. She stopped and started scanning the rooftops, as Francis, seeing her intently looking, stopped to look around as well.

Francis was abruptly jerked off his feet and dragged backwards. He shouted in surprise as he struggled against the constricting tongue. The tongue continued to draw him back, until he banged hard against an abandoned car, which immediately caused the alarm to go off.

Zoey frantically fired at the smoker, finally just blasting the tongue and breaking it. Francis struggled out of the coils and yelled for Zoey, they needed to get to cover quickly, before the horde showed up. With just the two of them and no melee weapons, they could easily be overcome. They hurried into a nearby storefront and prepared to face the onslaught.

Francis and Zoey stood shoulder to shoulder, behind a counter, guns trained on the front doors as they waited for the zombies to pour in. Francis spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, just behind them. He whipped around, leveling his shotgun and firing. At the last moment he jerked the barrel up and the shotgun discharged into the wall, raining plaster down on a shocked Louis and Bill. Zoey gasped and ran towards them, hugging them in relief as they stared wide-eyed at Francis.

"Um...sorry, guys." Francis sheepishly lowered the shotgun and ran his hand over his head. "You surprised me, is all." He hadn't heard their greeting as they entered the room. Bill cursed himself, he'd totally forgotten in his relief at seeing them that Francis couldn't hear them and they'd almost earned a load of buckshot for that little memory lapse.

A small horde arrived in response to the car alarm, but with Francis and Zoey shooting and the others using the melee weapons they were easily killed. Even that short fight exhausted Francis, they needed to take a long break afterward to let him recover enough to continue.

They forged ahead, following signs to another safe-room as they kept a lookout for food and ammo. They were able to find a pile of ammo, allowing them to replenish their stock, but were unable to locate any food. They made their way to the safe-room, hoping that there would be some food there. Once inside, they found that it, too, had been stripped bare of supplies. They were greeted by empty shelves and little else.

In spite of this, they decided to stay there for the day. Francis was really in no shape to continue, Bill was astonished that he'd been able to make it as far as he did. He really should have been spending the day resting, not moving at all. He had clearly been pushing himself beyond his physical limits, he lay down on a sleeping bag and fell into an exhausted sleep within minutes of reaching the new safe-room.

Bill and Louis decided to make a short scavenging trip in the nearby buildings, hoping to find something to eat. They carefully searched each building, but came up empty. It seemed the whole town had been meticulously ransacked and everything edible had been taken. Discouraged, they returned empty handed to the safe-room.

They decided to just set the watch shifts and try to rest. If the writing on the safe-room walls was accurate, they were very close to the evacuation zone. Tomorrow they would push on and hopefully reach it.

Zoey took the first watch shift, pacing restlessly as she tried to ignore her rumbling stomach. As much as she hated beets, she wished she had a whole pile of beets to eat right now. She drank some more water, hoping that would quell the stomach pains. She nervously started chewing on her jacket sleeve, then passed some more time by doodling on the pad they kept around to communicate with Francis.

Francis woke groggily many hours later. His headache had gone from excruciating to merely painful, but he still couldn't hear a thing. He looked around, hoping there might be something to eat, he was starving. Bill was the only one awake, so he got up and went over to him.

"Did ya find any food?" He asked him, hopefully. Bill dourly shook his head. "Oh shit, I'm starvin'!" Francis responded with a scowl. Bill just shrugged and nodded in agreement. Bill got up and rummaged through the supplies, coming back with some pills for Francis, painkillers and a tranquilizer. He swallowed the painkillers and contemplated the tranquilizer, finally accepting it with a sigh. He figured it was better to go back to sleep than to work himself into a frenzy over how hungry he felt. There was absolutely nothing that could be done about it, so he might as well chill until tomorrow. He returned back to his bedding, eventually falling back to sleep with the aid of the tranquilizer.

Bill glanced over, giving a worried look to Francis. In order to recover, Francis needed food. They all did, but without it, it would take him much longer to regain his strength. Well, whatever they did find tomorrow, they would need to make sure Francis ate his fill, even if it meant the rest of them did without. If they couldn't find anything, Bill doubted Francis would be able to continue at all. He might be done for good and they would have to leave him behind. The thought of abandoning one of his team, so close to rescue, tormented Bill for the rest of the night.


	12. Consumables

She groaned in frustration as she looked around her. All she saw was woods and more woods. Ever since the incident with those men she had avoided the safe-rooms, preferring to sleep high up in the trees, using a tent-hammock she had liberated from a sporting goods shop. The zombies seemed oblivious to her presence up there, so it was relatively safe. Without any information from the safe-rooms, however, she was wandering around without a clue as to which direction she should be going. This had to be the tenth trail today that she'd followed which dead-ended or just faded away into nothing. She sighed and put her equipment down as she selected the tallest tree that she could find. She swiftly scaled the tree, climbing above the wooded canopy, searching for any signs of buildings or other structures to head towards.

She was able to see a water tower quite far away, but no buildings. She was just about to climb down and make her way toward the tower when she spotted some smoke rising, as if from a large campfire. It wasn't that far away, she could be there in an hour if she headed due West. She glanced at her watch, it would be dark by then, a dangerous time to be walking around in the woods but a perfect time to check the situation out unobserved. If those were survivors, she might be able to figure out where they were headed, or join up with them if they looked like decent people. She climbed down and gathered her gear back up and set off.

It was a difficult trek through the damp woods, skirting around fallen trees and large sections of impenetrable brush. Finally she could glimpse the flickering of a fire through the trees. She set her gear down and put most of her weapons with it, carefully concealing it in the brush. She kept a small pistol with her, as well as a few concealed knives. If she decided to interact with the other survivors, she didn't want to alarm them with her full array of weapons. Or if things didn't go well, she didn't want to lose all of her weapons and equipment to them.

She crept carefully toward the fire. As she neared, the mouthwatering smell of roasted meat wafted through the air. Her stomach began to rumble. It had been a long time since she'd had meat and she hadn't had much food at all over the past couple of days. There wasn't much to be found out in the woods and she was ravenous.

She glided through the shadows and slid under some heavy brush on the outskirts of the fire to watch. Several men stood around the fire, skewering meat and setting it up to roast. They were all heavily armed, rough looking and dirty. A small door was set into a large hill, this seemed to be their shelter. A woman emerged, scantily clad and carrying a platter. She watched as the men grabbed food from it, roughly shoving the woman when she moved too slowly to suit them. One of them slapped her hard and tripped her to the ground, laughing loudly.

Any thought of interacting with them went straight out of her head. These men looked like big trouble, it would be best to avoid them. She decided to wait until they went to bed, then sneak in there and see if there were any leftovers or forgotten food left outside. She settled herself in to wait. Judging from the increasingly erratic behavior of the men, they seemed to have alcohol and lots of it. Eventually they staggered back into their shelter and everything grew quiet.

She quietly got up and emerged from the brush cautiously, ready to bolt for cover at the slightest movement or sound. She approached the fire, searching for scraps and finding a platter with a few pieces of meat on it. She grabbed them and practically inhaled it, then went back to the fire, searching for anything that had fallen into it. She found a large chunk of meat and maneuvered it out of the fire with a stick. She bit into it, chewing and savoring every bite, even though it was cooked nearly dry.

A loud thump sounded behind her and she whipped around to see a large shape standing there, an assault rifle pointing at her. The man was clad in full camo and had apparently been perched on watch somewhere on the hill above the shelter.

"Well looky what we've got here...a thief!" The man chuckled as he looked her over.

She started to back away, but he quickly moved to block her escape as he pressed the assault rifle into her side.

"Oh no you don't. Get face down on the ground, spread your arms and legs. If you move, you're dead." She complied, thinking that he would put the weapon down when he tried to search her and she would go for him then. Instead, he backed over toward the shelter door, opened it and yelled inside. "Get out here, we've got company!" Several armed men emerged to stare down at her.

"Nice one! Let's get him searched and situated!" One of the men stepped forward and knelt on her back, searching her and removing her weapons. He reached his hand underneath, shoving them under her shirt in his search. He felt her chest and then chuckled.

"You guys ain't gonna believe this. Looks like you've bagged a bitch! Check it out!" He rolled her over, pinned her shoulder down, and pushed her shirt up for the others to see. He grabbed her jaw and looked closely at her face. "Nice lookin' too, better lookin' than any of the ones we got left."

"Throw her in the empty pen. The boss will wanna see her in the morning and decide what to do then. Better chain her up, though."

She went completely rigid at the word "chain", as she desperately tried to figure out how to get away. The man got off her and in the blink of an eye she rolled to her feet and dashed away, as the men cried out and pursued her. She dodged around one of them and did a diving roll to escape the grasp of another. She bolted for the woods, if she could make it that far she was certain she could lose them. That was the last thought that ran through her head before it exploded in pain and she crashed to the ground face first, her limp body sliding through the leaves, finally coming to a crumpled stop.

"Not bad," one of the men grudgingly admitted, as he pushed the woman over onto her back. "Hope you didn't kill this one, though."

One of the other men reached down and retrieved the small sledgehammer he'd thrown. "Naw, don't think I hit her hard enough to kill. She'll be out for a good long time, though. Let's have some fun!" He gave a feral grin to the others as he reached down toward her.

One of the other men gave a snort. "Yeah, there's a great plan. Two guesses where you'll end up for doin' that before the boss gives the go ahead. I may be crazy, but I ain't stupid. You go and do what you want, but I'm out."

With a growl of frustrated anger, the man straightened back up. "I'm sick and tired of bein' told what I can and can't have! This is bullshit! He better let me have her tomorrow, or there's gonna be hell to pay!" He stomped off back to the shelter, slamming the door behind him.

Two of the other men grabbed her off the ground and took her over next to the shelter. One of them knelt down and unfastened a trap door built into the ground. He reached down and brought out a collar and chain, which he fastened around her neck as another man cuffed her hands behind her back. They dumped her down through the door and used a padlock to lock it shut.

She came slowly back to consciousness as voices whispered around her. The place she was laying in was damp, reeking of moldy leaves and sewage.

"Don't say anything! It just makes it worse, they start cryin' and screamin'. I can't listen to it no more! It's bad enough _we_ know what's gonna happen." The voice whispered urgently into the darkness.

"They have a right to know! They'll probably figure it out anyway!" Another voice whispered tensely. "Did I hear them say it's a girl? Maybe a girl would have a chance…"

She groaned and tried to touch her aching head, only to find she couldn't move her arms. It took her a few seconds to realize she was handcuffed. She grunted in pain as she pushed her hands down and pulled her legs through to get her hands in front of her. She pushed herself up to a sitting position and looked around. She couldn't really see anything, it was pitch dark, but she seemed to be in some kind of dirt pit with lots of leaves inside. She staggered to her feet and pushed up against the trap door, but it wouldn't budge. A wave of dizziness hit her and she abruptly sat back down as pain radiated through her head. She felt around at the back of her head, it felt kind of pulpy, and her hand came away sticky with blood. She next felt at the collar around her neck, it felt like a simple leather collar, and it was way too tight. She managed to unbuckle it and throw it aside. She lay back down in the leaves as she tried to gather her thoughts and come up with an escape plan.

"Psst, hey you!" A voice whispered through the darkness. "Over here! The pit next to you! You OK? Are you a guy or a girl?"

She crawled toward the voice, feeling around until her hands brushed across some kind of pipe. "Um…hello? Guess I'm ok, and yeah, I'm female. What the hell is going on here?"

"Look, just listen to us. They'll come and take you out of here, do whatever you can not to be brought back. Tell them you'll do whatever they want, it might be your only chance…" The voice whispered intensely.

"Why? What's gonna happen if I end up back here?" She lay down, her head next to the pipe, trying to fight off a sudden urge to sleep as she started to shiver. She could hear the two voices arguing quietly again, she couldn't make out what they were saying anymore as their voices faded into the distance. She closed her eyes and slipped back out of consciousness.

She woke again, upside down, looking at the ground. She had been slung over somebody's back and was being carried through a large drainage tunnel. She heard a door open and she was unceremoniously dumped on the hard cement floor. She blinked up in the dim light at the extra large man who had brought her there. He quickly grabbed her wrists, lifted them high and hauled her to her feet, then hooked the cuff chain over a hook on the wall. This left her dangling in the air, her toes barely brushing the ground. He glanced at her, seemed satisfied at his handiwork and left the room, closing the door behind him.

She sighed and let her head fall back into the wall, instantly regretting that decision as pain pulsed through her skull. Hanging her up like this was a typical stress maneuver, something done to break a person down and make them cooperative. These people sure as hell didn't know her, this was definitely not the way to get her to cooperate. She shifted around, hunching against the wall and bouncing against it to reach up to grip the hook itself, she used it to pull herself up slightly to take pressure off the chain, which allowed her to lift the chain from the hook. She slid down to stand against the wall, rubbing her sore wrists.

A metal desk stood in the corner, so she went over to it and searched through it, finally finding what she was looking for. She straightened out the paper clip and used it to release the cuffs, tossing them in a corner. Next she examined the door lock, it was a deadbolt, locked on the other side. No chance of doing anything with the paper clip there.

She looked around the room, searching for an escape. She quickly focused on the dropped ceiling. She grabbed a waste basket, set it upside down on the desk and climbed on top. She could just reach the ceiling, so she pushed a tile aside and grasped some metal pipes inside, using them to haul herself up. She moved carefully across the metal framework, looking for an access opening to another room. She found a narrow space and was just getting ready to squeeze herself through when the door below slammed open. She froze, hoping they wouldn't see the opening she'd left in the ceiling right away. Damn, that was a stupid mistake!

No such luck, as a spray of bullets punched through the ceiling and an angry voice shouted. "Get down here! I'll spray the whole ceiling if you don't!"

She quickly squeezed herself through the opening and moved across it as rapidly as she could. Bullets ripped through the ceiling of the room she'd just left. She couldn't find any more openings from the new room, so she pushed a tile out and dropped down into the room below. It was being used for storage and had a jumble of boxes and equipment in it. She opened the door outward very slowly and carefully eased her head out to look down the hall.

The door was abruptly kicked shut, pinning her, as a fist cracked into her temple. She was out before she even hit the floor.

She woke to the feeling of drowning, as water ran up her nose and into her sinuses, she coughed and sputtered. Water was being poured down her face, soaking into her clothes.

"There she is…time to wake up, sweet cheeks!" A big man carrying an uzi across his back tossed a bucket to the floor with a grin, then left the room.

An older woman approached, carrying a towel. She looked nervously at the door as she leaned over and dried her with it. "Who are you? What's your name?" The woman spoke softly, so softly she could barely hear her.

"Most people just call me Doc. What's your name?" She tried to shift around, she must have been laying there for a while, she felt pretty stiff. Of course, being handcuffed down to the metal frame of a bed, without any mattress, wasn't the most comfortable. She was partially on her side, the cuffs looped through a side rail and a long chain had been shackled to one ankle with a padlock.

"I'm Anne, I'll help take care of you." She looked away, then down at the floor. She seemed afraid to say any more.

"Tell me what's going on. What do they want, anyway? If they're collecting women or something, why are they keeping those men penned out there? What in the hell is this place?" She searched the woman's face for answers.

The woman hesitated before leaning close, whispering as she used the towel to dry her hair. "This place is your worst nightmare. You'll either become one of the women who services the men here, or you'll be put out in the pens. They call them "consumables", the people that they are going to butcher for food. Anybody who they catch or who causes trouble is thrown out in the consumables pens. They kill and cook at least two people a week, more if they catch a group."

Doc stared at her, horrified. "They're _eating_ people? Not zombies, real people?!"

Anne nodded, looking at the floor. "It's been going on for weeks. They keep the women, at least for a while. The others are all just penned there until they decide to cook them. They've even done children..." She looked away, her face tense and nervous.

"Then...the meat last night?" Her stomach lurched as she thought about it and her mouth went dry.

The woman nodded again. "One of the few men left in the pit, he kept trying to break free, so they decided to cook and eat him before he managed to escape. You need to be careful. They're already agitated that you tried to escape earlier. If you push them too far, you'll end up in the pit." She busied herself drying the area up, piling the wet towels in the bucket.

Doc laid her head back down and nodded, thinking about the options. "What's the quickest way out of here?" If she caught a break, she would need to get out fast.

Anne looked around nervously. "There's a yellow stripe on the floor outside, turn left and keep following, it leads you through this hill, to the other side. Just follow the yellow stripe..." She gave a small, tight smile as she stood, looked quickly around and pressed a wire hairpin into Doc's cuffed hand. The door banged open and she jumped back, glancing in fear at the man who had just entered.

The man was large and powerfully built. He was very muscular, with red hair and a beard. He looked like the sort of guy who should be leading a crew of vikings on a pillaging raid, not hiding from zombies in tunnels and eating the weaker members of the group. His eyes, a startling grey color, had almost a feral shine to them.

He looked down at her, his eyes scanning over her hungrily. He gave her a small smirk and then slapped her hard across one cheek, followed by a sharp backhand across the other cheek. The slaps stung badly and caused a short dizzy spell. She clenched her eyes shut and breathed deeply, trying not to pass out. If he realized she was really hurt, he might just toss her in the pits right off.

"That's for the bullshit last night and this morning. One more incident with you and you're finished. Good thing you're decent looking, or I wouldn't put up with even that much." He whirled around to Anne, frowning. "I thought I told you to strip her! She don't need those clothes anymore."

The woman stared at the floor meekly, as she tried to mollify the man. "I'm sorry, she was wet and shivering, shocky from the head injury. I was afraid she would get hypothermic and knew you wouldn't want that."

The man continued to glare at Anne, then walked quickly over to Doc, towering over her. "All right, tell me what you're doing here. How many people are in your group? Who are you and what's your story? Don't lie to me and I won't punish you."

She looked him in the eye and replied. "There is no group, just me. I saw the smoke from your fire and came to see if you might have any food. I..."

She was cut off abruptly as he slapped her hard across the face and her head snapped to the side. She moaned as she saw stars and fought to remain conscious.

"Don't lie to me, bitch! I warned you! There's no way you were alone! Tell me about the rest of your group, right now! I'm not playing with you!" He glared in her face and lifted his hand up to slap her again.

She gritted her teeth and spoke firmly. "They're dead! I'm the only one left! There is no group!"

He stared at her, hand still raised to strike. "That better be the truth! If I find different, I'll do things to you to make you wish you'd never laid eyes on me!"

She looked at him with resignation. "Think that ship has already sailed..."

He cracked her another blow across the face, snapping her head back to the opposite side. "You think you're funny, don't you? Well, you'll find there ain't too much to laugh about around here. I'll let you know when I want to hear your smart mouth, otherwise make sure you keep it shut!"

She didn't respond, that final slap had sent her back into oblivion, past feeling anything else.

He shook her and gave a disgusted grunt, then lifted her eyelid to see that the eye was completely rolled back, definitely not faking it. He grabbed her short hair and pulled her head around to check out her swollen temple, then the wound from the hammer. He examined it briefly, it was at the base of the skull, a bad spot. If he'd known that, he wouldn't have hit her so hard.

He whirled around to Anne. "Clean up that wound and get some ice on it. Get those wet clothes off her and you can put some blankets on to keep her warm. She's of little use to me dead, except for meat, so you better make sure she recovers. I want this one alive, at least for a little while. I'll send one of my guys over to run an IV and give her some pain meds and tranquilizers to keep her quiet. You know the drill."

Anne nodded and sighed. This was exactly how it had gone with the others. Well, at least a few of them were still alive...


	13. Deadliest Catch

She emerged from the fog of unconsciousness to confusion and pain. She felt crushed under a heavy weight as she lurched back to full consciousness. A man was on top of her, crushing her into the metal frame of the bed. She cried out as he clutched at her and bit her neck.

"You're awake enough to play...that's good!" His face loomed above hers as he began to strip his clothing off, she recognized him as one of the guys from the night she'd been captured. "More fun this way." He finished with his shirt and stripped off the remainder of his clothing, throwing it aside. He ripped the IV line from her arm and threw himself on top of her again.

She writhed and twisted, determined to get him off of her. He just laughed at her efforts. She was still cuffed and chained to the bed, he knew she wasn't going anywhere.

He laughed again, squirming on top of her. "Keep it up, babe. The more you struggle, the better I like it!" He pinned her wrists down as he roughly grabbed at her.

"Get OFF!" She bellowed, struggling against him. "Goddammit, get the fuck OFF!"

He seemed startled at how loudly she yelled, and stopped briefly. Then he glared at her angrily and punched her hard in the stomach, knocking the breath out of her. She doubled up, as much as the restraints would allow anyway. "The next one is going to be in the face, if you don't shut the hell up!" He tried to force her legs apart. "Mind your fucking, bitch! If I have to knock you out, I will!"

"NO! Get off me!" she shouted back at him.

He cuffed her hard across the face, she struggled to stay conscious as her vision dimmed and finally faded to black.

When she came to, the man was no longer on top of her. Dazed, she glanced around her to see several men and Anne in the room. The attacker was sprawled on the floor. Anne quickly came over to her and swiftly covered her naked body with a blanket. She turned back to the men standing over the man on the floor. "One of you better get Arik and find out what he wants to do about this." She nodded toward the supine figure on the floor. One of the men quickly left the room, as the other knelt down and handcuffed the unconscious intruder.

Now that the threat was gone, the adrenaline rush was over and Doc felt weak, her grip on consciousness tenuous. She blearily watched as the red-haired leader entered the room and the attacker was dragged away. Anne spoke with Arik, whose face turned dark with anger. He approached her and ripped the blanket off, checking out the damage from the assault. She flinched as he roughly examined her. He grabbed her by the jaw and pulled it around to look at her bruised face as she groaned and her eyelids fluttered as she teetered on the brink of consciousness until finally she went limp.

Arik dropped her head back down on the bed and then turned angrily to Anne, who had stepped forward to replace the blanket. "How the hell did this happen?! You're supposed to be taking care of her! You're damn lucky he didn't manage to get very far, I'm savin' her for somethin' special!"

She meekly looked at the floor as she spoke. "I'm sorry, but he must have been waiting, watching for me to leave. This area isn't very secure against your own men."

He grunted and scowled as he considered his next course of action. "I'll take care of it. I'll post a guard and make sure everyone knows that anyone who tries anything like that, I'm gonna castrate them with my combat knife then throw 'em in the pit. That should be sufficient discouragement. She's a nice catch and I don't want her spoiled." He grunted in satisfaction, then turned to contemplate the unconscious woman with a frustrated sigh. "See if you can get her to wake up and eat something. She's too weak and out of it. I want her weakened and compliant, but not so frail and drugged up that she can't stay awake for a while. I want to start training her soon."

Anne looked at him uneasily. "Training her for what?"

He returned a lascivious grin. "Oh, somethin' real special. She's gonna be the center attraction in a live show for the guys. Give them somethin' to get fired up about." He laughed as he thought about it. It wasn't that hard to control his band of meatheads, he just needed a good carrot to dangle in front of them. They were getting bored and argumentative, a little incentive was just what they needed right now. He turned and left the room.

With a worried look, Anne turned back toward Doc, shaking her head. She got some ice and a wet cloth to try to bring the swelling down and clean her up a little.

Doc woke up to the coolness of the ice being applied to her face and bruised ribs. She groaned as she, half-conscious, tried to reach up to her aching face and head. She was confused about why she couldn't, until it eventually sunk in that she was still handcuffed down. Pain radiated throughout her body as she opened her eyes and looked around.

Anne leaned over her, smiling sadly down at her. "How are you feeling? I know he hit you a bunch of times, can you tell me what hurts? I can get you some pain meds if you want them."

"I'll live, I'll live…a couple of pain pills would help though. Thanks." She was so stiff and sore and hurting that the additional bruises and welts barely registered. "Can you please, PLEASE, take these restraints off? Even for just a few minutes? The pain and stiffness from being stuck in the same position is killing me."

Anne helped her swallow some pain pills and contemplated her request. "I'll go get some food and water for you, then I can uncuff you so that you can eat and drink and use the toilet. OK?"

"All right," she agreed, "but consider me a vegan from now on, I don't think I'll ever touch meat again." Even now the thought of her last meal was turning her green.

Anne nodded and left to get some food together, as Doc looked around the room, trying to piece together an escape plan. She immediately focused on the vent set high up on the wall. If she could get into the ventilation system, she should be able to make her way out of there, hopefully with better results than last time.

The door opened, as Anne brought in a large bowl of oatmeal and a plate of biscuits, as well as a small pitcher of water. She removed the cuffs, leaving the ankle chain attached.

Doc pushed herself up and stiffly sat on the edge of the bed as she tried to stretch out. She helped herself to the food, practically bolting it as she quickly drank the water down.

Anne looked at her, then stared down at the floor, then looked pointedly back to her. "I'll let you have some privacy. I'll be outside if you need me."

Doc looked down, where Anne had been staring. A hairpin lay in the dirt on the floor. As soon as the door closed, Doc made use of the facilities and then grabbed the hairpin and quickly freed herself. She quickly found her damp clothes piled on the floor and got dressed, then she climbed on the desktop and used a chair to reach the vent and open it up.

She entered the vent system and moved quickly through it. The vent duct finally dead-ended, so she dropped down into the room below. It was filled with ammunition, but no weapons. She opened the door and carefully eased into the hall, immediately spotting the yellow line on the floor. She cautiously followed the line away from the direction she had come from, moving as quickly as she could. At one point she heard footsteps ringing down the hall, heading her way. She ducked into a nearby room and crouched in the darkness, waiting for the men to move on. The room held some generator equipment, as well as containers of gasoline. She grabbed a container of gas and brought it with her once she was able to go back into the deserted hallway.

After a while, the yellow line eventually led to an exit. The door was locked and barred shut, she was just starting to examine the lock when she heard she sound of footsteps echoing down the hall. She looked frantically around and dove into the nearest room, hiding behind a stack of crates. She heard the sound of the exit door bar clanging down and the shuffling of footsteps.

A few minutes later, the door to the room she was hiding in banged open and a flashlight beam began to search through the room. She squeezed into the crevice behind the crates, looking carefully at the ground, hoping they wouldn't spot her.

"We better find that bitch quick, before Arik goes nuclear. He already killed the old lady that was supposed to be watching her. One of us is next if we don't find her. There's no way she got through the outer door, she's got to be here somewhere." The man spoke as he walked further into the room and the flashlight beam probed closer to her hiding spot.

Doc clenched her eyes shut. Poor Anne, now she was dead and it was all her fault. She cursed silently to herself as she renewed her determination to get away, it couldn't all be for nothing.

"Well, she ain't in here. I think she's probably still up in the vent system. That thing goes on for miles, she could be anywhere in there. Too bad we don't have anybody small enough to get up in there." His companion sat down on a crate and stopped to light a cigarette.

"You jackass, put that out! Are you tryin' to kill us both? Those crates are full of propane! Jesus, you're an idiot!" The man jumped up and headed out of the room, quickly followed by his companion.

"Relax, it's out, ok? Don't get your panties in a bunch!" They remained just outside the doorway as they argued. Suddenly, they both went quiet.

"Well?" the familiar voice of Arik demanded as loud footsteps clanged through the hall.

"Nothing so far, the door was still locked, so she couldn't get outside." One of the men answered.

"Did you check outside?! She could have gotten to the outside through the vent system. Did you geniuses even think of that?! Christ, do I have to do everything myself?! You come with me, you stay here and watch the door!" Arik stomped out into the dimly lit woods, taking one of the men with him.

She clenched her jaw and crept forward, keeping to the shadows. This might be her only chance to get out, and only one man stood in the way. It was a chance she would have to take, even though she knew she was in really poor condition to fight anybody right now. She hoped she would be able to incapacitate him quickly and, more importantly, silently.

He was standing right next to the door, so she had no choice but to emerge right next to him. His eyes widened in astonishment, but before he could cry out, she jumped on him and had him in a flying triangle, choking out his cries. She tightened it quickly and mercilessly, until he convulsed and went limp. She searched him swiftly, grabbing a pistol and combat knife off his belt, before slipping out of the outer door and into the surrounding woods.

She moved cautiously forward, trying to determine the location of the men outside and hoping to skirt around them. She crouched down next to a large tree as she waited and listened carefully.

"Freeze, bitch!" A man's voice growled at her from behind.

She whirled around, throwing the knife in the same motion toward the direction of the voice. She was rewarded with an anguished gurgle, as the knife buried itself deeply in the side of the man's neck. He staggered forward, clutching at it, then fell face down to the ground. She approached to reclaim the knife, nervously looking around for Arik. He was out there somewhere and she wondered if he had heard the scuffle. She reached for the knife, but before she could grab it, a voice barked out from the shadows.

"Touch it and you die! Get on your knees, hands on your head! One wrong move and I blow your brains out! Got it?" She slowly complied as Arik approached, pistol in hand. He grunted as he observed her handiwork with the knife. "Very impressive. Too bad it's gonna be wasted talent. I'm only interested in using you for one thing, and one thing only. You're not gonna need knives for that, honey." He grinned at her as he dragged her by the neck away from the body and slammed her to the ground. He knelt on her back as he searched her, removing the pistol and tossing it over toward the dead man. He dragged her back to her feet by her shoulder, pushing her stumbling toward the tunnel door.

One man in the way of her freedom. She decided right then that she would either be free or be dead. There was no way she was going to go along with whatever he had in store for her. She whirled back toward him, trapping the arm with the pistol in it against her body. She planted a backfist directly on his nose, then kicked him hard in the side of the knee and he collapsed to the ground. She immediately kicked the hand holding the pistol, causing the weapon to skitter away through the leaves and into the dark.

He bellowed in pain and anger and clutched at her, but she administered a hard roundhouse kick to the side of his head. It barely fazed him, and he jumped up and charged at her, incredibly quick for a man of his size and bulk. She darted aside and tripped him and threw him past her as he stumbled. He whirled around, abruptly cautious.

"You think you can beat me with that Kung Fu shit? Really? Not likely, sweetheart. You're not the only one who knows a thing or two about that stuff." He grinned as he launched himself at her in a much more disciplined attack, hitting and striking at her swiftly.

She fended his attack off, blocking and moving to avoid the blows. He darted in again, she was forced to dive away in a roll to avoid an elbow and kick to the head. He laughed at her and started darting in and out, toying with her, knowing she was already exhausted and would soon be unable to answer his attacks.

He darted in again and she defended against him, finally able to knock him back with a flurry of kicks. Panting heavily, she stumbled and fell to her hands and knees, glaring up at him.

He laughed at her again. "Had enough, bitch? Did you really think you had a chance? You must be even dumber than you look." He reached in a side pocket and pulled out some handcuffs and flung them on the ground next to her. "Put those on and it's over. I won't hurt you anymore. Don't and I'll show you the true meaning of pain and put you in a world of hurt."

She glanced at the cuffs and shook her head. She stayed on her hands and knees as she continued to gasp for breath, then lowered her forehead to the ground as she fought to remain conscious.

He shrugged and carefully approached her. She remained unmoving, gulping air and he grinned in triumph as he realized she was completely gassed out. As he reached down for the cuffs, she whipped her legs against his, and he fell to his back. She jumped on him and swung into an arm bar, but he was far too strong for her in her weakened condition. She instantly transitioned into a shin choke, but he was able to punch her off. He tried to mount her, delivering punishing punches to her body as he did. She grabbed an arm and quickly slapped a triangle choke on him, tightening it down hard, but he was able to stand up from it and slam her back to the ground and break out of it. She nearly blacked out from the slam, she knew she needed to end this now or never, she just didn't have much fight left in her. In desperation, she threw a leg over as he threw himself on top of her and managed to catch him in a scissors choke between her legs. She choked him as he thrashed and writhed, they were both rolling over and over on the ground as he tried to free himself. His fingers clawed at her legs in desperation. Finally, he went limp. She grabbed the combat knife from his belt and thrust it into his jugular.

She whispered in his ear as he bled out. "That's for Anne, you piece of shit!" She staggered to her feet and made her way back into the tunnel. She grabbed the gasoline can and poured it out, all over the tunnel entrance and leading to the storage room. She lit it and moved a safe distance away to watch. The fire and explosion were startling in the dark, silent forest. Muffled explosions continued for several minutes as ammunition and gasoline stores in the tunnel system blew up. The eery howling and screeching through the woods as the zombies responded to the noise was sobering, however.

She gathered what weapons she could from the dead men and went to find a safe tree to sleep in, finally selecting a large pine where she found a bowl-shaped area between some large branches, filled with soft pine needles. She fell into an exhausted sleep, too tired to care about anything, even the roars of the zombie horde below.


End file.
